The SciPop Scale for Measuring Science-Related Populist Attitudes in Surveys: Development, Test, and Validation

Abstract

Populism typically pits political elites against “the virtuous people.” A distinct variant of populism (“science-related populism”) extends beyond politics, targeting academic elites and suggesting they ignore people’s common sense and will. Individual endorsement of such a worldview (“science-related populist attitudes”) has been conceptualized but not yet measured. Hence, we developed the SciPop Scale, a survey instrument to measure science-related populist attitudes. We tested 17 survey items in a first representative survey and developed an 8-item scale. We then tested German, French, and Italian versions of this scale in a second representative survey, employing confirmatory factor analysis, Item Response Theory, and external validity tests. Findings show that the SciPop Scale is a robust and reliable measure of populist demands toward science.

Science-related populism declining during the COVID-19 pandemic: A panel survey of the Swiss population before and after the Coronavirus outbreak

“…Key variables were time of data collection (0 = June/July 2019; 1 = November 2020) and an aggregate score reflecting science-related populist attitudes, which we measured with the SciPop Scale, a reliable 8-item survey scale capturing the four conceptual dimensions of science-related populist attitudes with four 2-item subscales (Mede et al, 2021; see Supplemental Table S2 for all variables and questions). To obtain the aggregate "SciPop Score," we computed mean values of these subscales for all respondents and determined the smallest value to indicate their intensity of sciencerelated populist attitudes.…”

“…Science-related populism has been conceptualized as a set of ideas suggesting that the virtuous "ordinary people" and their common sense-and not allegedly corrupt academic elites-should determine what is deemed "true knowledge," how it is produced, and on which topics scientific research should focus (Mede and Schäfer, 2020: 482). Science-related populist attitudes therefore cover four dimensions: (positive) conceptions of the ordinary people, (negative) conceptions of the academic elite, demands for (science-related) decision-making sovereignty, and demands for truthspeaking sovereignty (Mede et al, 2021). These attitudes reflect negative public sentiment toward scientific institutions and pertain to scientific power and truth claims-and, as such, address the specific conditions under which rally-round-the-flag dynamics may emerge during the COVID-19 pandemic.…”

Predicting Public Trust in Science: The Role of Basic Orientations Toward Science, Perceived Trustworthiness of Scientists, and Experiences With Science

“…Individuals who endorse science-related populism can be described as holding "science-related populist attitudes" (Mede, Schäfer, and Füchslin 2021). Such attitudes have been conceptualized as a multidimensional construct (similar to political populist attitudes; Schulz et al, 2018), with each dimension reflecting one of the four theoretical components of science-related populism, i.e., (positive) conceptions of the ordinary people, (negative) conceptions of the academic elite, demands for science-related decision-making sovereignty, and demands for truth-speaking sovereignty (Mede, Schäfer, and Füchslin 2021).…”

“…Individuals who endorse science-related populism can be described as holding "science-related populist attitudes" (Mede, Schäfer, and Füchslin 2021). Such attitudes have been conceptualized as a multidimensional construct (similar to political populist attitudes; Schulz et al, 2018), with each dimension reflecting one of the four theoretical components of science-related populism, i.e., (positive) conceptions of the ordinary people, (negative) conceptions of the academic elite, demands for science-related decision-making sovereignty, and demands for truth-speaking sovereignty (Mede, Schäfer, and Füchslin 2021). Importantly, diagnosing science-related populism requires that all these four components occur simultaneously within a person: Individuals who only hold negative conceptions of academic elites, for example, but reject the three other components, may only be described as supporters of anti-academic views but not as proponents of science-related populism.…”

“…Science-related populist attitudes were measured with the SciPop Scale, a robust eight-item survey scale, which quantifies science-related populist attitudes along its four conceptual components and has been tested and validated in different languages and samples in Switzerland (Mede, Schäfer, and Füchslin 2021;. The components were captured by four two-item subscales (Spearman-Brown reliability coefficients: 0.75, 0.78, 0.73, 0.78, respectively) following Mede, Schäfer, and Füchslin (2021). For our hypothesis tests (H1-H5), we used a single aggregate score to quantify science-related populist attitudes, which we obtained by taking the smallest value of the four subscale means (Mede, Schäfer, and Füchslin 2021).…”