French public confidence in science has changed since Covid, according to poll

A new poll suggests that public confidence in science has evolved in France, especially in light of the Covid crisis. Despite a keen interest in scientific topics in the media, more than one out of two French people consider scientific theory to be "just one form of hypothesis" while four out of ten people say that scientists are not independent enough.

Covers of different scientific magazines available in France, March 2022. © Science et vie, Sciences et avenir, Ciel et espace, Epsiloon, Cerveau et psycho

The poll called "Baromètre de l’Esprit critique"* (Barometre of Critical thinking), published on Tuesday was carried out by the group Gece for Universcience, in partnership with public news agency franceinfo and La Croix newspaper.

It was the first edition of an event organised by Universcience, the public body that regroups Cité des sciences et de l'industrie (City of Science and Industry) Museum in Paris and the Palais de la découverte (Palace of Discovery), in Paris.

The questions were asked along three main themes; the public's relationship to science, capacity for scientific reasoning, and approach to methodology. 

Eighty-eight  percent see science as a way to develop new technology useful for society, 87% said science enabled a better comprehension of the world and 85% said it was necessary for improving living conditions.

According to the poll, French people are avid consumers of scientific subjects: 81% said they watch scientific documentaries, 67% use Internet for scientific content and 64% watch videos on YouTube.

With the Covid crisis still in the forefront of the public's mind, the relationship between French citizens and science has come under a certain amount of strain over the past two years, with experts seen as having the edge over media or politics when it came to getting the facts.

Confidence in Doctors

Within the scientific community, doctors received the most support, with 51%, while 38% said they only had confidence in "some" doctors.

Researchers followed behind with 44% for most researchers, (40% for "selected" researchers). Other findings include:

• Only 51% of French people polled said they still viewed science as the only reliable source of information.
• For 43%, the scientific community is sufficiently independent, while 40% said this was not the case.
• 53% said science was just "one way among others" of explaining various phenomena.

In terms of media coverage of news items in general, 68% said television was their main source to get information, 73% said they used Internet, 50% got information from their friends and family, 46% listened to the radio and 40% used newspapers and social media.

However, when it came to scientific subjects, television and radio were out on top with 44%, followed by press 40%, then scientific websites (27%) and scientific books (25%).

Mainstream journalists only garnered 14% when it came to confidence in reporting on scientific subjects, slightly ahead of politicians on 8%.

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In terms of attitude, 86% of those polls said they were "open to new ideas" while 81% said they would "take on board a maximum number of opinions on each subject".

Finally, 51% of French people said they preferred to discuss theories with people who had a different opinion to themselves (compared to 39% who said they wouldn't do this) and 73% said they enjoyed debating or discussing scientific and social topics in general.

*Opinion poll carried out between 17-28 February with 3,218 people representing a cross section of the French adult population.