Examining disparities in public support for, knowledge about, and trust in science

The thesis consists of three empirical articles, with each paper focusing on the specific domain of public understanding of science research field, namely racial disparities in civic scientific literacy, public support for the pro-environmental governmental policies, and public perception of scientists’ trustworthiness. Chapter 2 employs the General Social Survey data to study the role of racial social identity and racial ingroup evaluation in shaping the science literacy gap between whites and African Americans. In Chapter 3, the European Social Survey Round 8 data is used to explore the relationship between public support for the welfare state and the environmental state. Finally, Chapter 4 utilizes the experimental data collected via Prolific to answer the question as to what are the attributes of scientists that make them preferable and more trustworthy in the public eyes.