Large majority of citizens trust science

(Image: Pixabay CC0) The Corona pandemic has not only impinged on daily life around the world for around two years now - it is increasingly shifting science and research into the focus of public debate. One aspect is the trust people have in the work done by scientists. A team of researchers led by Prof. Rainer Bromme, a psychologist at the University of Münster, now have published a study, which concludes that science has so far passed the pandemic stress test of public trust in science. -The group which mistrusts science is very small, amounting to seven to eight percent of those questioned, and it has shown no increase during the course of the pandemic so far,- says Rainer Bromme. -The large block of the undecided is melting away, which increases the size of the group of people who trust science. In September 2019 - before the pandemic, in other words - 46 percent of those questioned said they trusted science. Shortly after the outbreak of the pandemic, in April 2020, this figure increased to 73 percent; in November 2020 it was 61 percent - still well above the level before the crisis.