The impact of public political stances was not equal for both Left and Right-leaning researchers. Strongly Republican scientists were considered 39% less credible than neutral scientists, while strongly Democratic scientists were only considered 11% less credible than neutral scientists, the study found.

While Democrats were very sceptical of the credibility of Republican scientists, they viewed politically neutral and Democratic researchers as equally credible. Republican respondents preferred moderate Republicans researchers to neutral researchers, though they were very sceptical of strongly Republican scientists, in contrast to Democratic respondents, who viewed strongly Democratic scientists as credible.

The politicisation of science has accelerated in recent years, most notably with several high profile scientific magazines endorsing Joe Biden in 2020. Scientific American urged readers to vote for Biden in the first endorsement in its 175-year history, praising his fact-based plans to “protect our health, our economy and the environment” and writing that Trump “rejects evidence and science”.

The US government’s funding of scientific research may also play a role. For example, large NIH scientific research grants have fueled speculation that researchers are tailoring their findings to suit the preferences of government officials such as Anthony Fauci, who have a say in the allotment of grants.

The researchers’ findings — that political stances damage scientists’ credibility — track with declining trust in institutions in the past two decades, particularly the declining trust in scientific institutions and research. That decline has been most evident among Republicans, whose belief that science’s impact on society is mostly positive has dropped from 70% to 47% since 2016, according to Pew, while Democrats have seen a more modest decline. This makes sense in the context of scientists’ own political polarisation, as evidenced by the Munich study’s finding that, of non-neutral political stances taken by scientific researchers, the stances are overwhelmingly Left-of-centre.

“Politicized scientific communication online erodes public perceptions of scientists’ credibility, undermines public engagement with scientific discourse, and potentially exacerbates affective polarization within U.S. society,” the study concluded.

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is UnHerd’s US correspondent.

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