The most recent Pew Research Center survey data shows that only 57% of Americans say that science has had a “mostly positive effect on society,” down from 65% in 2021 and 73% before the pandemic. Other trends point in the same direction: overall trust in science has fallen from 87% in the early stages of the pandemic to 73% in 2023, and the share of the population identifying as having a great deal of confidence in scientists has dropped from 39% to 23%. In tandem, public skepticism is captured in the 15% rise in distrust in science over the same period. And, while the conversation around trust in science is often geared towards the most extreme conspiracy cases, one doesn’t have to be anti-science to lose trust in science and, perhaps more importantly, the scientists behind the work.
Blind, unquestioning trust in science should not be the goal—the scientific endeavor and society as a whole benefit from demands for transparency, accessibility, and accountability. At the same time, the scientific method and the knowledge it produces have a valuable role in informing our public decision-making.
In communities across the country and worldwide, organizers, activists, and frontline providers—all cognizant of the positive impact that science can have in saving lives and improving livelihoods—are working tirelessly to make this sentiment tangible on the ground.
What has worked for this group of trustbuilders, and what hasn’t? What are the appropriate forms of content, format, and language? What approaches make sense when engaging with certain communities, but not with others? It is also worth noting that the issues facing science are far from unique. Institutions across the board, from journalism to government bodies, are finding themselves under similar scrutiny.
Recognizing the often underutilized expertise of these community organizers, activists, and frontline providers, we set out to create a practitioner’s playbook. Toward this end, in Spring 2024, the Aspen Institute Science & Society Program convened a diverse group of multi-sector trustbuilders to foster a candid, open conversation around the tactics that make up an effective trustbuilder’s toolkit in science and more broadly.
This text, freely available to aspiring trustbuilders, members of the scientific community, and the public whose trust we seek to earn, represents an actionable summary of their discussion. This work is also the third installment in Science & Society’s publication series on public trust in science, with the first two chapters captured in the more theoretical December 2023 report, Building Bridges, Earning Trust: The WHY and the HOW of Public Trust in Science.
