Irish people have been found to have the second highest level of trust in scientists in the EU, second only to Spain.

In international rankings, Ireland comes 14th out of 68 countries examined, above the UK and US.

Professor Luke O’Neill told the Show Me The Science podcast that trust in scientists is hugely important during times of crisis.

“Of course, one of the reasons they’ve done this study, in a way, is what happened during the pandemic,” he said.

“If the public don’t trust scientists, then they won’t change their behaviour to avoid spreading a virus, or they won’t modify their behaviour in terms of climate change, or whatever it is.

“So, public trust in science then becomes a really important thing for governments, because governments want to achieve certain things.

“And if the public don’t trust scientists, then the public are less likely to respond to the information that they’re being given, and the data and so on.”

A scientist in a lab filling containers. Image: Moderna

The study was conducted by 241 scientists led by Harvard University as well as the University of Bath.

Participants were also asked questions about what scientists should be studying and how they should interact with the public.

Answers were based on a scoring system of one-to-five, with five indicating a high level of trust.

Public engagement

“One was, ‘Should scientists engage in society and policymaking?’ 3.6 score, so that means overall, yes,” said Prof O’Neill.

“And then this one in my favour - ‘Should scientists communicate about science with the public?’ 83% said yes.

“So, anybody who feels that I shouldn’t be spouting on can get lost.

“But the vast majority think that us scientists should be engaging with the public, isn’t that great? So, I was very happy to read that.”

(Image via Pixabay)

The study also examined how levels of trust in science differed depending on gender and political beliefs.

According to Prof O’Neill, male and conservative were seen to have lower levels of trust in scientists.

“Another interesting association was, guess what? Women are more inclined to trust scientists than men,” he said.

“Now, why would that be? Don’t know but that was one of the conclusions and you can speculate as to why that would be."

Prf O’Neill said that those that older people, religious people and those that are better off financially were also both more likely to trust scientists than their counterparts.

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Main image: Split image showing Professor Luke O'Neill (L) and a scientist using a petri dish (R).