HSE Experts Measured Russians' Trust to Science and Technology

Results of science and technology development play a major role in people's everyday lives. Statistical measurement is more often focused on economic effects of R&D expenditures, but measuring social impact of science and technology development, and its perception by the population, is no less important. Many countries conduct such studies, including Russia. Data collected in the course of the Monitoring of Innovative Behaviour of the Population conducted by HSE ISSEK since 2009 allows to see how the Russians’ aggregate trust to science was changing over the years.

Printed version (in russian) of the newsletter “Public Opinion on S&T Development” (Science, Technology, and Innovation series) by Alena Nefedova and Konstantin Fursov

Data sources: Monitoring of Innovative Behaviour of the Population (2003–2015); OECD Science, Technology and Industry Scoreboard (2015)

A noticeable and quite stable share of Russians was identified during more than 10 years of monitoring studies (between 59 and 68% of the surveyed) who believe S&T development is beneficial (figure 1). Interestingly, after the survey’s methodology was adjusted in 2015 (the neutral answer was excluded from the questionnaire), the share of “rather negative” answers has significantly increased. A year before, in 2014, the largest share of respondents have chosen the neutral answer – which is evidence of the society’s ambiguous perception of the present-day science.

Figure 1. Russian population’s perception of impacts of science and technology on society (% of the surveyed)

Question: Is the overall impact of science and technology on society positive or negative?

* The option of “Benefits of scientific research are about equal to harmful results” was excluded in 2015

It should be noted that young people (under 34) more often see benefits from science and technology (73%, compared with 67% for the whole sample), and people with higher education (71% compared with 67% for the whole sample), who more closely follow science and technology news in the media and are better informed about relevant advances.

International research also shows that on the whole, people are more inclined to positively assess science and technology's contribution to social development (figure 2). Still, these studies have also revealed a significant share of sceptically, or even negatively minded people.

Figure 2. Relative balance of positive and negative assessment of science and technology's impact on the society, by country: 2015*(%)

Question: Is the overall impact of science and technology on society positive or negative?**

* Data for Russia for 2015, for other countries for the closest years available

** Difference between the number of positive and negative answers as percentage of the total number of respondents (except those who opted for “Equally beneficial and damaging” and “Can't say” answers)

In terms of the share of population who approve of technological progress, Russia is at the second to last place among the countries for whom compatible data is available. If we take into account that population is not just a consumer of S&T development results but also an active contributor to their creation, by providing demand for new knowledge and solutions, reduced number of science and technology proponents may potentially become a worrying factor.

Comment by Konstantin Fursov, Head of Division for Analysis of R&D Performance at HSE ISSEK

Science is a complex and multifaceted phenomenon, and assessing its economic or social impact involves serious research, not infrequently many years of it. The question asked in our survey (“Do you think science and technology on the whole are beneficial or damaging?”) is a very abstract one. It doesn’t reveal exactly what the society wants from researchers and engineers, but provides a very important generalised characteristic of large social groups’ attitude towards science and technology. That’s why this indicator was used in numerous international studies for decades.

It should be noted that when the indicator is calculated for international comparison, neutral answers are excluded in accordance with the OECD methodology – which allows to compare positive and negative reactions, and produce a kind of a Positive Perception of Science index.

After more than 15 years of observations we see a significant reduction of the share of people with an unquestionably positive attitude towards science, especially in the last two years (32% in 2011, and 18% in 2015). This is due to a whole host of factors among which, along with the level of people's scientific literacy and quality of scientific communications (which remain rather low in Russia) I would mention the increasingly controversial nature of S&T progress as such. Together with new solutions and answers to societal challenges, science and technology frequently bring new controversy into the world. And the society reacts to it – which we can observe thanks to our ongoing measurement studies.