Trends in American scientists’ political donations and implications for trust in science

Alexander A. Kaurov (), Viktoria Cologna, Charlie Tyson and Naomi Oreskes
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Alexander A. Kaurov: Harvard University
Viktoria Cologna: Harvard University
Charlie Tyson: Harvard University
Naomi Oreskes: Harvard University

Palgrave Communications, 2022, vol. 9, issue 1, 1-8

Abstract: Abstract Scientists in the United States are more politically liberal than the general population. This fact has fed charges of political bias. To learn more about scientists’ political behavior, we analyze publicly available Federal Election Commission data. We find that scientists who donate to federal candidates and parties are far more likely to support Democrats than Republicans, with less than 10 percent of donations going to Republicans in recent years. The same pattern holds true for employees of the academic sector generally, and for scientists employed in the energy sector. This was not always the case: Before 2000, political contributions were more evenly divided between Democrats and Republicans. We argue that these observed changes are more readily explained by changes in Republican Party attitudes toward science than by changes in American scientists. We reason that greater public involvement by centrist and conservative scientists could help increase trust in science among Republicans.

Date: 2022
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DOI: 10.1057/s41599-022-01382-3

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