Science Barometer 2023

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 the data and communicating the results. The Science Barometer questionnaire contains questions on cognitive attitudes such as interest and information and the information behavior of the respondents on topics from science and research. In addition, evaluative attitudes are surveyed, including trust, the assessment of the benefits and risks of science and the social role of research. The questions are aimed at general attitudes towards science and research. In individual cases, questions are also dedicated to specific research areas or technologies or, alternating annually, to current developments in science and the public.

The results of the Science Barometer 2030 are based on 1,037 telephone interviews (landline/mobile, 80:20) conducted from August 22 to 24, 2023 as part of a multi-topic survey conducted by Kantar Public 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 2023 is a project of Wissenschaft im Dialog. It is sponsored and supported by the Carl Zeiss Foundation and the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft.<br>1. Interest in and informedness about science and research: interest in scientific topics in specific areas; informedness about science and research.

2. Information behaviour on science and research topics: self-assessment of information status; frequency of use of the Internet in general for information on science and research; frequency of use of various information channels on science and research on the Internet (Facebook, Twitter or other social networks, blogs or online forums, Wikipedia, YouTube or similar video platforms, websites of scientific institutions or organizations, websites or media libraries of news media such as newspapers, magazines or television stations, podcasts, messengers such as WhatsApp or Telegram).

3. Trust in science and research: general trust in science and research; reasons for trust in scientists (expertise, working according to rules and standards, research in the public interest); reasons for mistrust of scientists (frequent mistakes, adapting results to own expectations, dependence on donors).

4. Social role of science and research: attitude towards potential benefits and risks of science and research (science does more harm than good, benefit personally from science and research, orientation of scientists towards the common good, efforts of scientists with regard to public communication, public funding of research, even without direct benefit (basic research), attitude towards the relationship between science and politics (political decisions should be based on scientific findings, it is not the task of scientists to interfere in politics, it is right for scientists to speak out publicly when political decisions do not take research findings into account).

5. Current topic - use of artificial intelligence in the form of programs such as ChatGPT: Awareness of programs such as ChatGPT; evaluation of programs such as ChatGPT in the reproduction of scientific content: Agreement with four possible positive aspects (you can have complex facts from science and research explained to you in a highly simplified way, you can have texts written in the style of scientific articles in a very short time, you can talk about science and research as if you were talking to a real person, you can have examples given to you and ask follow-up questions if you are unclear about scientific topics); agreement with four possible negative aspects: Programs like ChatGPT make it more difficult to determine whether scientific content was written by a human or a program, cannot verify the sources of information on scientific topics as thoroughly as a human, sometimes misinformation on scientific topics is reproduced, can increase the spread of misinformation on scientific topics), trust in programs like ChatGPT when reproducing scientific content.

6. Personal connection to science and research: employment in science and research; personal acquaintance with a scientist, private contacts or other professional environment in the field of science and research.

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

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