Key Insight
Kahan examines research showing declining conservative trust in science since the 1970s, arguing the finding is real but the standard narrative misdiagnoses its cause and solution.
Studies using General Social Survey data have consistently found that conservative confidence in science has declined since the early 1970s, while liberal confidence has remained stable or increased. The standard narrative attributes this to the politicization of science by conservative political and media actors.
The decline in conservative trust in science is issue-specific , not general. Conservatives remain just as likely as liberals to trust science on politically neutral topics. The decline is concentrated on issues where scientific findings have been associated with liberal policy positions.
This matters for diagnosis. If conservatives have become selectively skeptical of science on issues where it has been recruited as a political weapon by the other side, the problem is different from general anti-science sentiment — and partly the fault of how science has been communicated. The solution is not to demand that conservatives simply trust science, but to communicate science in ways that don't activate identity-protective responses.