We provide an analysis of the public's having warranted epistemic trust in science, that is, the conditions under which the public may be said to have well-placed trust in the scientists as providers of information. We distinguish between basic and enhanced epistemic trust in science and provide necessary conditions for both. We then present the controversy regarding the (alleged) connection between autism and measles–mumps–rubella vaccination as a case study to illustrate our analysis. The realization of warranted epistemic public trust in science requires various societal conditions, which we briefly introduce in the concluding section. 1Introduction2Basic Epistemic Trust in Science3Deciding Whom to Trust4Enhanced Epistemic Trust in Science5A Case Study: The Alleged Causal Link between MMR Vaccination and Autism 5.1A brief overview of the MMR controversy: The scientific perspective5.2The public's perspective5.3Enhanced epistemic trust in the MMR controversy6Conclusion
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.