Science Barometer 2020

With the Science Barometer, Wissenschaft im Dialog has been collecting population-representative data on the attitudes of citizens in Germany towards science and research every year since 2014. The aim is to contribute to a fact-based discourse on the relationship between science and the public and targeted science communication by collecting, processing and communicating the results. Accordingly, the questionnaire of the Science Barometer contains questions on cognitive attitudes such as interest and informedness and the information behaviour of the respondents on topics from science and research.

The results of the Science Barometer 2020 are based on 1,016 telephone interviews (landline/mobile, 80:20) conducted from 3 to 9 November 2020 as part of a multi-topic survey by Kantar - on behalf of Wissenschaft im Dialog. The German-speaking resident population in private households aged 14 and over served as the basic population. The Science Barometer 2020 is a project of Wissenschaft im Dialog. Its sponsors and supporters are the Robert Bosch Stiftung and the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft.<br>1. Interest and information behaviour on science and research topics: Interest in the topics of politics, technology and new technologies, local affairs and science and research; frequency of contact on the internet with the topics of science and research; frequency of use of various information channels about science and research on the internet (Facebook, Twitter or other social networks, blog or online forums, Wikipedia, YouTube or similar video platforms, web presences of scientific institutions or organisations, websites or media libraries of news media such as newspapers, magazines or TV stations, podcasts); trust in science and research; scientific literacy: Understanding of ´doing scientific research´ (open); reasons for trusting scientists (are experts, work according to rules and standards, do research in the interest of the public); reasons for distrusting scientists (often make mistakes, adjust results to their own expectations, are highly dependent on their funders).

2. Social role of research: agreement with statements on the relationship between science and society (scientists make too little effort to inform the public about their work, science and research do more harm than good, I personally benefit from science and research, people trust science too much and not enough their feelings and faith).

3. Corona pandemic: Current Corona measures are appropriate; great knowledge about the Corona virus; trust in statements about Corona from different actors (statements from scientists, from doctors and medical staff, from politicians, from representatives of authorities and offices, from journalists, from relatives, acquaintances and friends); agreement with various statements about science and research in the context of Corona (political decisions in dealing with Corona should be based on scientific evidence, it is not the task of scientists to interfere in politics, we should rely more on common sense in dealing with Corona and we do not need scientific studies for that, science and research on corona are so complicated that I don´t understand much of it, controversy between scientists is helpful because it helps the right research findings to prevail, most scientists who currently comment make a clear distinction between what they already know for sure and what are still open questions about corona); agreement with general statements about Corona (it is important to get one´s information about the Corona virus from outside science as well, scientists do not tell us everything they know about the Corona virus, there is no clear evidence that the Corona virus really exists, the Corona pandemic is being made into a bigger deal than it actually is); willingness to vaccinate against the Corona virus; estimated likelihood of personal infection with the Corona virus; likelihood of serious health effects from personal infection with the Corona virus.

4. Personal relation to science and research: job in science and research; personal acquaintance with a scientist.

Demography: sex; age; education; occupation; occupation in detail; household size; children under 14 in household; net household income; party preference.

Additionally coded were: Interview no.; interview duration (in seconds); weight; city size (BIK); federal state; region.