Spaniards welcome the fruits of science, although they have the feeling that their country does not contribute much to global scientific progress. Advances such as genetic editing, supercomputers or space colonization are seen with greater optimism in Spain compared to the countries around it. This is what emerges from the Scientific Culture Study 2024 of the Department of Social Studies and Public Opinion of the BBVA Foundation. The study has been carried out in 15 European countries and three others with a differential profile: the United States, Israel and Turkey. And it is in line with what was indicated in previous editions.
In Spain, the population's trust in science stands out above the European average (7.6 compared to 7.1 out of 10). But the differences are more striking when we go down to the fine print. Space colonization is viewed favorably by 52% of Spaniards, a percentage notably higher than the European average (35%) or even that of the country that leads space exploration worldwide, the United States, where it reaches 42%. %. Optimism is even greater when talking about supercomputers. 75% of Spaniards believe that they will improve our lives, compared to the European average of 63% or the US average of 62%. Biotechnology, solar energy, genetic editing, space exploration… Spain is the country that most optimistically embraces most of the changes analyzed.
The study draws a robotic portrait of the person who usually trusts science. In Spain, it would be someone young, educated and left-wing. Ideology only has a slight influence in Spain and Israel, in the rest of the countries analyzed it does not have a clear impact. Age also has an influence and in a more transversal way, with young people being more likely than their elders to trust science in all countries. Gender, in Europe, is not relevant, but it becomes a more important factor in Israel and Turkey, where men trust science more than women. Finally, the level of scientific culture increases with the level of studies completed by the population.
Spain also stands out in another section of the study, but at a low level: Spaniards are the citizens who least trust religion as an institution, with a value of 3.9. This reaches the average threshold of trust in Eastern European countries (5.0), in Israel (5.6) and in Turkey (6.3). The European trust average is below five. This question makes sense because in other sections dogmas of faith and scientific evidence are contrasted. Significant minorities in Eastern European countries and the United States believe that human beings were created by God in more or less their current form. In Israel (56%) and Turkey (70%) the majority of respondents support this idea, rejecting the theory of evolution. In Western Europe the percentage plummets to 22%, highlighting the case of Spain, where only 13% trust the literal words of the Bible more than those of scientific treatises. In general, and despite this, there is a broad consensus that science and religion coexist without problems and that science does not destroy religious beliefs.
The study also dedicates several paragraphs to analyzing how, despite the noise, conspiracism and post-truth are residual phenomena. “In a context in which some elites question the veracity of scientific evidence and the media devote attention to an alleged crisis of rationality,” the report notes, “the majority of citizens clearly perceive the central role of science as the most reliable source of knowledge.
The parallel that can be drawn between creationism and conspiracy goes beyond the fact that they are alternatives to scientific evidence. Both phenomena are based on the same psychological principle. In 2018, an article in the magazine Current Biology, found a relationship between them. “Both belief systems share a very powerful cognitive bias that we know as teleological thinking,” pointed out its author, neuropsychologist Sebastián Dieguez, from the University of Friborg (Switzerland).
Does technology dehumanize us?
The BBVA Foundation study has also analyzed the level of scientific knowledge of the population, asking respondents about 12 basic concepts or notions. The results reflect significant differences between countries, with the level of knowledge being higher in Europe as a whole (average of 7.9 correct answers on a scale from 0 to 12) and the USA (7.8), while the level it is lowest in Israel (6.4) and Turkey (5.2). The Spanish (7.6) are slightly below the European average. However, even in societies in which the level of scientific knowledge is relatively low, the majority of citizens show a favorable disposition towards science. In Spain there is good consideration of scientific (67%) and technological development (74%), but not so much of the contribution itself (52%) to progress on a global scale in these subjects. To put it in context, the European average is 57% and the US average is 80%.
When talking about science everything is positive, but things change a little when asking about technology, where advances are perceived with greater suspicion. The agreement predominates that technology “makes our way of life change too quickly”, a view that stands out in Turkey (7.5), is reduced in Europe (6.5) and Israel (6.4) and is moderate in the United States (5.5). There is a division of opinions regarding the dehumanization caused by technology (5.7 in Turkey, and 5.1 in Europe and Israel), with the exception of the United States (4.6), where the majority disagrees with this affirmation.
There are many data and graphs that accompany this study, but they all seem to crystallize in one last figure: 40%. It is the percentage of Europeans and Americans who say that science sneaks into their conversations fairly or very frequently. In 2012, only 15% of the population said the same. Since then, the pandemic, scientific advances and the proliferation of conspiracy theories have put the spotlight on science. They have made scientific advances permeate the global conversation. On the agenda of political parties and the front pages of newspapers. And in discussions at the bar, family gatherings and workplaces.
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