unique fingerprint? Factors influencing attitudes towards science and technology in South Africa

Abstract

From an international perspective, research in the field of public attitudes towards science and technology has been conducted since the 1970s. A frequently proposed – and empirically supported – theory is that strong interest in and knowledge about science in a society is associated with more favourable attitudes towards science. This positive attitude in turn affects support for public funding of science. However, this research field is not without controversy, and for the South African population many questions remain unanswered. Initial research has not explored the factors that shape attitudes towards science and technology in detail. We re-analysed data from the Human Sciences Research Council to explore the above theory. Interestingly, for the South African population, higher levels of scientific literacy and use of information sources are associated with more promises but also more reservations towards science and technology. This is especially true for relatively young and educated survey respondents. In international comparison, South Africa shows a unique fingerprint to some extent, but also shares characteristics with industrially developing countries of Europe (such as Greece or Portugal). To understand the correlations better, future research should aim to examine the overall picture when investigating the diverse South African population more extensively.

Highly esteemed science: An analysis of attitudes towards and perceived attributes of science in letters to the editor in two Dutch newspapers

“…This is also reflected by the vast majority of the letters on this theme that were written by authors from this category, whereas lay persons are far less represented in this theme compared with the other two themes. The worries of representatives of the science system may be part of the explanation for the cautiousness among groups with a high scientific literacy (Guenther and Weingart, 2016). Yet, literature seems to position the sentiments regarding the organization of science as an internal matter, related to changing management of universities (e.g.…”

“…Comparable with Achterberg et al (2017), the vast majority of studies on attitudes towards science seem to focus on identifying attributes of social groups. Educational background (Bak, 2001; Guenther and Weingart, 2016), gender (Luján and Todt, 2000), religion (DiMaggio et al, 2018; McPhetres and Zuckerman, 2018) and ideology (Pechar et al, 2018) have been found to play a role in shaping attitudes towards science.…”

Politics of science communication in South Africa

“…This same 2010 survey was again analysed in 2016 which indicates the need for more PUS surveys in the future [Guenther and Weingart, 2016].…”

“Science is Everywhere, but No One Knows It”: Assessing the Cultural Distance to Science of Rural South African Publics

“…4 The primary interest of these studies was, and often still is, to determine people's scientific literacy, their favorableness towards S&T, and its public funding; often, data are compared across time and countries (Besley, 2013). Although only few data exist for South Africa, initial findings highlight the diversity of public perceptions of S&T in this country: There is a mixture of promises and reservations of S&T, with-predominantly-scientific literacy, age, and education affecting these attitudes (Guenther & Weingart, 2016;Reddy, Gastrow, Juan, & Roberts, 2013).…”