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Contact:

Oihane Lakar

Elhuyar Fundazioa

Contact details:

o.lakar@elhuyar.com

943363040

2009/11/13

The public’s perception of science and technology’s place in society

Surveys of the public perception of science and technology have been carried out in Europe for thirty years now. In the Basque country, however, no study has been undertaken to date of the how science and technology is viewed by society.

In order to fill this lacuna, in 2008 the Elhuyar Foundation, together with the Sociological Survey Office of the Basque Government, launched the sociological survey “Zientziaren irudikapenak Euskal Herrian (2008) (Representations of science and technology in the Basque Country- Euskal Herria)”. The results of this questionnaire were presented at the Elhuyar Foundation.

The research tackled three aspects. On the one hand, a qualitative study to which end debate groups were formed made up of members of the public from throughout the whole of Euskal Herria and also of students and researchers from both the science and technology field and that of social sciences. Interviews were also carried out with experts from different branches of science and technology. On the other, quantitative data on social perception was used; more specifically, information gathered in the 3rd National Survey on the Social Perception of Science and Technology, undertaken in 2006 by the Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology (FECYT), together with CIS (Centro de Investigaciones Sociológicas). Finally, Elhuyar Foundation undertook a study in 2008 to find out the presence of science and technology topics in the print media in Euskal Herria (the results of this study were published in the November 2008 issue of the Elhuyar Zientzia eta Teknika journal).

Science - the good and the bad

One of the conclusions that can be drawn from the studies undertaken is that, in general, society appreciates science and technology. In the debate groups, for example, it was observed that, thanks to new sciences and technologies, we have a much more comfortable lifestyle and greater life expectancy, and there has been a notable enhancement in our capacity to communicate. People believe that research and development are indispensable for advances in and the welfare of societies.

Moreover, scientists are amongst the groups most valued in our society. In fact, in the quantitative study, it could be seen that jobs related to scientific themes occupy the three prime positions in the list of occupations most valued: doctors in first place with the public giving them an average of 4.4 points on a scale of 1 to 5, and in second and third place are scientists and engineers, with 4.0 and 3.8 points, respectively.

Despite the praise and taking their social function into consideration, the public also perceive the aspects of science and technology that are dangerous or not so good. People believe that certain ethical limits have been passed, in areas such as human cloning and the manipulation of embryos. In general, in the quantitative study it can be seen that 41.5 % of the population believe that the benefits accruing from science and technology are greater than the disadvantages. 37.5 % hold that both good and bad aspects are present equally, while 8.5 % say that the drawbacks outweigh the benefits.

Moreover, they pointed out that the advertising and the marketing of certain brands create necessities amongst the public at large. “We do not stop buying and consuming, we are trapped as it were and do not see any possible solution” commented one participant. The unanimous opinion in the debate groups was that we are caught in a vicious circle.

Greater efforts have to be made

All the advances in science and technology have been made possible thanks to scientists, of course. The angst to understand the world, the desire to find something novel, to receive thanks from society as well as the ambition to gain monetary recompense have, amongst other things, instigated people to become scientists and do research.

In any case, people believe that the vocation of researchers at the beginning is being undermined because politicians do not give science, technology and innovation the importance they deserve. This is why people believe researchers want to go abroad. In general, it is taken for granted that, in foreign countries, especially in the rest of Europe and in the United States, more money is invested in science and technology and that their science programmes are better organised. People believe that, in Euskal Herria, the working conditions for researchers are very poor and, moreover, researchers feel under pressure to come up with results.

Given these circumstances, society requests a restructuring of policies on science. Any changes should be aimed at achieving the well-being and stabilisation of research and at guaranteeing the security of researchers. Also to be taken into account are spheres not considered to be profitable, as people believe that “not investing in science and technology is not to believe in the future”.

In the Autonomous Community of the Basque Country (the provinces of Bizkaia, Araba and Gipuzkoa) a positive feeling is extant, with the public seeing signs of change, i.e. they perceive that government bodies have realised the new challenges and have begun to commit themselves to boosting research in science and technology, Innobasque and, especially, Ikerbasque being named as indicators of change.

In Navarre and the North Basque Country (within the French Republic), however, there is nothing new. What is more, in the latter (continental) Basque Country, they hold certain administrative changes to be indispensable for progress to be made in science and technology; a university for the North Basque Country being essential.

Not of interest to the public

Despite considering them to be important, the public does not show special interest in topics related to science and technology; or not, at least, to those themes that do not have relevance to their everyday lives. That is, people have an interest in science and technology whenever it directly bears on their lives. Thus, three aspects of science and technology are cited as of interest: technologies of information and communication, such as Ipod, Mp3, computers and Internet, etc; the environment, renewable energies and sustainable development; and health and medicine.

This posture of the public at large is faithfully reflected in the communication media. In concrete, the results of the study show that the topics most frequently appearing in news stories on science and technology in the daily papers are those dealing with technology, health, computers and the environment. It is also quite clear that newspapers do not give their opinions about science, technology and innovation, and personal opinions much less so.

Moreover, in the study it was possible to observe that most of these journalistic texts (1,089) have little relevance, taking the Richard Budd scale of relevance (based on the size of the news story, the space occupied, number of pages involved and picture content), and the number of pages of maximum relevance has been no more than 55.

With this research study a basis has been laid down for knowing where we stand. It would be difficult to know what to offer through scientific communication, in science policies, in education and in other spheres, without knowing what our starting point is.