AN INSIDE/OUTSIDE VIEW OF U.S. SCIENCE

This spring, Pew Research Center surveyed two groups of adults and members of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).

The online survey sampled 10,000 AAAS members, excluding schoolteachers. According to the results, the public imagines scientists to be less politically partisan than they actually are, and scientists are decidedly more liberal than the general population:

• When how they seem themselves politically, 56 percent of scientists said they are liberal, two percent said conservative, while 42 percent didn't not classify with either ideology.
• When asked what party affiliation they subscribe to, most scientists answered Democrat (55 percent), 32 percent are Independents, six percent Republicans, four percent other and three percent declined to answer.

However, the public views scientists as having no political ideology (64 percent), eight percent didn't know, 20 percent said they were liberal and only nine percent answered conservative.

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