2024-03-02 13:08:11
In a recent study, the answer to that question has been sought, in this case focused on the Spanish population.
The research, carried out by specialists from the Carlos III University of Madrid (UC3M) and the University of Santiago de Compostela (USC), both institutions in Spain, is based on an analysis of how Spaniards were informed during the COVID pandemic. -19 and their perception of the role of journalists, media, scientific community and government and health authorities during it.
The result is that young people trust science less than older people.
72.6% of young people between 18 and 24 years old agree that science seeks the truth and makes it public, while 90.2% of adults over 65 years of age support this statement. Furthermore, the percentage of young people of this same age who believe that science is a danger to humanity is almost triple that of those who hold this opinion among older people. These are some of the data that emerge from this study.
These results suggest that distrust in science among young people is increasing, something that explains, for example, the scarcity of scientific vocations in this segment. “Young people do not want to enroll in science, technology and mathematics careers, because they believe that science is not a method for the search for truth and that it is even dangerous for the future of human beings,” indicates one of the authors of the study, Carlos Elías, professor of Journalism in the Department of Communication at UC3M.
«It is paradoxical, and very worrying, that the generations with the greatest access to information and education, the best educated in the history of Spain, are the ones that consume the least information and the ones that most distrust science and journalism, two fields who share the search for truth. We must reflect deeply on what is happening,” says Alberto Quian, professor of Journalism at USC and co-author of the study.
Source: Science News.com / Amazings.com