Scientific literacy and public trust in Science

Surveys attempting to obtain measurements of civic scientific literacy and public trust in science have been carried out in several countries, but not as yet in Sri Lanka. Although there is a general understanding that these two features of a society are multidimensional and that any numerical measure obtained needs to be interpreted with caution, there is no general agreement on the extent and manner in which scientific literacy impacts on the nature of public trust in science.

Public trust in science can exist without a high level of scientific literacy, due to the appreciation of the positive applications of science-based technologies which the public comes in contact with as individuals, in almost all aspects of their daily lives. Thus, the thematic content for the programme initiated by the National Academy of Sciences Sri Lanka (NASSL) on rebuilding trust in science is ‘How science/scientists generate wealth for the nation’......