Study title

Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.

Public Understanding of Science, 1988 was the first national survey of the British public's understanding of and attitudes towards science and technology. The general aim of this survey was to find out what ordinary people feel or think about science. Before this survey, very little was known about this area and the study wanted to explore the complex inter relationships between people's formal and informal experiences of, interests in, attitudes towards, and understanding of science. (By science here, the researchers mean all natural sciences and all science-based technologies, including much of modern medicine).

The study aimed to measure a combination of background, psychological and social factors in relation to people's expressed levels of interest in, attitudes towards, and informedness about the world of science. Particular objects of interest in the study were people's understanding of the processes and the products of science, and people's views on controversial or high-risk science.

The project was part of the ESRC's Public Understanding of Science Initiative and further information is available from the ESRC award web page.

Main Topics:

Topics covered include:

• interest and knowledge of new things
• attitudes to science and technology
• knowledge of scientific facts and concepts
• educational attainment
• employment
• use of a computer
• voting
• religion