Speaking of Science: What Democrats and Republicans know about science

The Pew Research Center in January asked nearly 4,500 adults to answer 11 multiple-choice questions about science. It released the report Thursday, slicing up the responses by...

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The Pew Research Center in January asked nearly 4,500 adults to answer 11 multiple-choice questions about science. It released the report Thursday, slicing up the responses by political leanings and other demographics. Moderates on the political spectrum scored the closest to the average, which in the surveyed population was about 7 in 11 correct. People typically understood that antibiotic overuse leads to resistance, for instance; fewer knew that antacids neutralize stomach acid because they are made of bases. Though a 63 percent score might not get a pop quiz hung up on the fridge, wrong answers here don't suggest a sorry state of scientific literacy. Pollsters who survey scientific knowledge deliberately include questions they know will stump some people. ("If everybody got it right, we wouldn't use it," Michigan State University professor John Besley, who studies public opinion about science and has conducted research similar to Pew's, told 538 last week. "And if everybody got it wrong, we wouldn't use it.") Moderates score lower on scientific literacy than more conservative Republicans or more liberal Democrats. (Pew Research Center) Moderate and conservative Democrats had the lowest scientific literacy, as judged by the report, answering questions correctly only half the time. The average moderate Republicans did somewhat better, at 6.5 out of 11 correct. But those further at the ends of the political divide, liberal Democrats (7.8 in 11 correct) and conservative Republicans (7.4 in 11), fared the best. Why doesn't scientific knowledge push people to the middle? Research by Yale University behavioral economist Dan Kahan offers one explanation: Using data to make an argument more frequently bolsters partisan opinions, not lessens them. That's because, as Kahan told Quartz in 2016, people like to collect information that supports our ideas, rather than gathering information before making up our minds. — Ben   ADVERTISEMENT   Fossils show worldwide catastrophe on the day the dinosaurs died Prehistoric fish swallowed glass spheres that rained on Earth almost immediately after the asteroid impact. By Ben Guarino · Read more   A helicopter landed in a California poppy field during the super bloom, and officials are furious As issues around economic inequality come to the fore, the photo was not good optics for the multimillionaire crowd. By Eli Rosenberg · Read more   Why NASA's historic all-female spacewalk isn't happening NASA astronauts Anne McClain and Christina Koch are not performing the first all-female spacewalk because there are not enough spacesuits of the best size to fit them. By Lindsey Bever, Kayla Epstein and Allyson Chiu · Read more     ADVERTISEMENT   The smallest and farthest worlds ever explored by NASA are really, really weird Historic encounters with the asteroid Bennu and the Kuiper belt object MU69 have revealed strange new features of these far-flung worlds. By Sarah Kaplan · Read more   Trump's budget slashes science. Here's what would be lost. A smaller budget at the National Science Foundation would mean 1,000 fewer new grants and would reduce graduate student fellowships by 20 percent. By Ben Guarino · Read more   Recommended for you Get The Switch newsletter The top stories on the tech industry, tech policy and tech in our lives, delivered every weekday. Sign Up

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