Gaps in public trust between scientists and climate scientists: a 68 country study

Ghasemi, Omid; Cologna, Viktoria; Mede, Niels G; Stanley, Samantha K; Strahm, Noel; Ross, Robert; Alfano, Mark; Kerr, John R; Marques, Mathew; Berger, Sebastian; Besley, John C; Brick, Cameron; Joubert, Marina; Maibach, Edward; Mihelj, Sabina; Newell, Ben R; Oreskes, Naomi; Schäfer, Mike S

doi:10.1088/1748-9326/add1f9

Gaps in public trust between scientists and climate scientists: a 68 country study

journal contribution

posted on 2025-05-21, 04:53 authored by Omid Ghasemi, Viktoria Cologna, Niels G Mede, Samantha K Stanley, Noel Strahm, Robert Ross, Mark Alfano, John R Kerr, Mathew MarquesMathew Marques, Sebastian Berger, John C Besley, Cameron Brick, Marina Joubert, Edward Maibach, Sabina Mihelj, Ben R Newell, Naomi Oreskes, Mike S Schäfer

This study compares public trust in climate scientists and scientists in general across 68 countries (N = 69,534). On average, participants reported moderately high levels of trust in climate scientists, with trust levels being slightly lower than trust in scientists in general. Overall, this trust gap was larger among participants who identified as politically conservative or right-leaning, but there was considerable variation across countries.

History

Publication Date

2025-06-01

Journal

Environmental Research Letters

Volume

20

Issue

6

Article Number

061002

Pagination

7p.

Publisher

IOP Publishing

ISSN

1748-9326

Rights Statement

© 2025 The Author(s). Published by IOP Publishing Ltd Original content from this work may be used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Any further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the title of the work, journal citation and DOI.