Sometimes, views on science are not political

The science of climate change divides the United States along political lines, but ideology matters little when it comes to views on space exploration, animal research and genetically modified food, a study said Wednesday.

Rather, gender, age and education are stronger influences than politics on certain science issues, said the Pew Research survey, which queried 2,000 people about 22 different topics.

"In this politically polarized culture, there is a strong temptation to think that people's partisan connections and their ideology dominate their thinking about every civic issue," said lead author Cary Funk, associate director for science research.

"What's striking about these findings is that politics sometimes is at the center of the story about public attitudes and sometimes politics has very little to do with the way people think about science issues in the public arena."

The survey found that climate change is the most divisive issue along political lines.

Most Democrats and independents (71 percent) said the Earth is warming because of human activity.

Just 27 percent of Republicans felt the same way.

But party politics was not the decisive factor in people's views on human evolution, which was found to be influenced just as much by religion, age, level of education, specific science knowledge and gender as it was by political affiliation.

There were no differences along partisan lines when it came to views about the use of animals in research, the safety of eating genetically modified (GM) foods and whether to allow access to experimental drug treatments before those treatments have been shown to be safe and effective.

"The more education people have, the more likely they are to favor the use of animals in scientific research, to consider genetically modified foods as generally safe to eat and to favor building more nuclear power plants," said the study.

Support for the International Space Station was another issue that was the same regardless of party affiliation, with about two thirds of both Republicans and Democrats saying they believe in the nation's investment in the orbiting lab.

Researchers also turned up some significant generational differences, with younger people far more likely than older people to support parents' right to make a choice on whether or not to vaccinate children.

Gender differences were apparent in opinions on the safety of eating genetically modified foods, with just 28 percent of women believing it was fine to do so compared to 47 percent of men.

Along racial and ethnic lines, African Americans were far less likely than whites to support experimental drug treatments.

Amid concerns that the growing world population may strain resources, 57 percent of African Americans said this could be a major problem, compared to just 36 percent of whites.

Religion figured prominently in views on evolution, and Pew is planning a separate report on that issue alone.

The survey was given to a nationwide sample of 2,002 adults via landline and cell phone in August 2014.

The margin of error is plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.
Source: AFP