Legacy media as inhibitors and drivers of public reservations against science: global survey evidence on the link between media use and anti-science attitudes

Public resentment toward scientific institutions, scholars, and their expertise challenges the status of science in many countries. This study examines the global prevalence of such anti-science attitudes and assesses whether legacy media (newspapers, TV, radio) temper or foster them. Addressing gaps in prior research—Western focus, emphasis on pro-science rather than anti-science views, limited attention to media use, and neglect of contextual moderators—this secondary analysis draws on World Values Survey 2017–2020 data (N = 70,867; 49 countries) and three country-level indicators (freedom of the press, prevalence of populist rhetoric, uncertainty avoidance). Anti-science attitudes vary markedly across countries and are relatively more prevalent in many Latin American nations. Bayesian multilevel regressions show that frequent legacy media use reduces anti-science attitudes in some countries but increases them in others, particularly where populist rhetoric pervades public discourse. The findings underscore the need for comparative research on global reservations against science and their implications for the science–society relationship.

Niels G. Mede