2019 State of Science Index Summary
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For the second year, 3M shared unique insights from our original research. The State of Science Index is an independent survey that explores global attitudes toward science, taking the pulse on how people think and feel about the field and its impact on the world around us.
Why did we continue our research? We are a science-based company that wants to solve society's biggest problems. To do so, we need to understand what the world thinks of science—and the role it plays in society—because it could impact the future. Understanding attitudes toward science can inform how we build a better and healthier world.
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The world needs both science advocates and science communicators
What we found is that the world needs more science advocates: Based on our 2019 findings, only 20% of the world stands up for science when debating its merits with other people, meaning 80% do not.
Despite what we’ve seen, 87% of people acknowledge we need science to solve the world’s problems. Our theory is that they don’t stand up for science simply because they don't realize there's a need to.
Part of the issue is that science and scientific findings are often communicated in language that’s inaccessible to the everyday person. In fact, 88% believe that science should be sharing results in easy to understand language, and 84% think scientists should make science more relatable to people’s everyday life.
To help emphasize science’s relevancy to everyday life and encourage more science advocates, we created the Scientists as Storytellers communications toolkit to help scientists and science educators tell compelling stories about the work they’re doing to improve lives, featuring advice from experts like Katie Couric, Alan Alda and astronaut Scott Kelly.
But that’s not all we learned. Explore below to uncover some of the other major findings from the 2019 State of Science Index.
What we learned
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Scientists are seen as credible but unapproachable.
80% are more likely to believe scientific information that comes from scientists than be skeptical of it. At the same time, 58% of people believe that scientists are elitists.
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Science skepticism is alive and well, partly because of confusion around scientific findings.
57% of people are skeptical of science because of conflicting opinions by scientists and/or because they are generally skeptical of things they don’t understand.
Beyond skepticism, 88% believe that scientists should share results in language that’s easily understood, and 84% think scientists should make science more relatable to people’s everyday life.
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The number one way to boost interest in science: make it more relatable.
70% believe that science is boring, but that they would be more interested in science if it made sense in the context of their health and/or daily life.
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Genuine concern for the world also drives interest in science.
59% are interested in science because it will lead to advancements that will benefit future generations.
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Most people think STEM jobs are worthwhile.
79% of people would encourage kids to pursue a career in science.
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But subpar education is an obstacle to the future.
Inadequate education/training is the top barrier (26%) for future scientists, apart from funding.
CEO Mike Roman sat down with Katie Couric to discuss 2019’s State of Science.
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You can access The State of Science Index data to see attitudes to science and we invite you to explore insights country-by-country through our explorer tool. We hope you’ll share and discuss the research. What do you think they mean to science today and in the future? For an overview of the combined global results.
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2019 Methodology
3M’s State of Science Index presents original, independent and nationally representative research conducted in 14 countries among the general population, including Brazil, Canada, China, Germany, India, Japan, Mexico, Poland, Singapore, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, UK, US. More than 1,000 respondents over the age of 18 in each of the 14 countries participated in this survey. Since 2018, it has been one of the largest, most global studies to explore attitudes to science and enables 3M to track and benchmark shifts in attitudes about science over time, using this first year as a baseline. Data from this research can be viewed as a 14-country, global average, or individually by country. At the 95% confidence level, the margin of error is +/- 0.83 percentage points at the global level and +/- 3.1 percentage points for each individual country. To compare results year-over-year, a 12-country tracking average was used - as France and Saudi Arabia were replaced with South Korea and Spain - which has a margin of error of +/- 0.9 percentage points.
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Science Champions podcast series
In our Science Champions podcast series, we discuss issues related to the global perception of science with some of the brightest minds in the field.
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2018 State of Science Index summary
Explore the findings from the first 3M State of Science Index Survey conducted in 2018.
