@misc{10481/98372,
year = {2024},
month = {11},
url = {https://hdl.handle.net/10481/98372},
abstract = {Science education is generally perceived as a key facilitator in cultivating a scientifically
literate society. In the last decade, however, this conventional wisdom has been challenged
by evidence that greater scientific literacy and critical thinking skills may in fact inadvertently
aggravate polarization on scientific matters in the public sphere. Supporting an
alternative “scientific update hypothesis,” in a series of studies (total N = 2087), we show
that increased science’s epistemology literacy might have consequential population-level
effects on the public’s alignment with scientific results. In one exploratory study and a
pre-registered national online survey, we first show that understanding scientific epistemology
predicts refusal of pseudoscientific beliefs and higher scores in a methodology
of science test. We also find and replicate a propensity for epistemologically literate citizens
to endorse the norm of belief updating and the communicated scientific consensus
following both ideologically congruent and incongruent scientific results. Notably, after
2 months of first being presented with scientific results on politically controversial issues,
a one standard deviation higher score in epistemological literacy is associated with a 14%
increase in the odds of individuals switching their beliefs to align with the scientifically
communicated consensus. We close by discussing how, on the face of ideological incongruity,
a general understanding of scientific epistemology might foster the acceptance of
scientific results, and we underscore the need for a more nuanced appreciation of how
education, public comprehension of scientific knowledge, and the dynamics of polarization
intersect in the public sphere.},
organization = {Leonardo Scholarship for Researchers 2020 of the BBVA Foundation},
organization = {Ministry of Science and Innovation funded project MetaProDes PID2021-124152NB-I00},
organization = {Energia Program grant EMC21 00266 from the Ministry of Economic Transformation,
Knowledge},
organization = {Universities of the Junta de Andalucía},
organization = {Universidad de Sevilla/CBUA},
organization = {European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Program under grant agreement 964728 (JITSUVAX)},
publisher = {Springer Nature},
title = {Scientifically Together, Politically Apart? Epistemological Literacy Predicts Updating on Contested Science Issues},
doi = {10.1007/s11191-024-00587-z},
author = {Viciana, Hugo and M. Astobiza, Aníbal and Fasce, Angelo and Rodríguez Hannikainen, Ivar Allan},
}