Public Attitudes 

 Toward Science and Technology 



INDICATOR HIGHLIGHTS 



The belief that science and technology have 

 changed life for the better was expressed by 

 75 percent of the public in 1974, compared 

 with 70 percent in 1972; 5 percent saw the 

 change as for the worse, down from 8 

 percent in 1972. 



In the public's ranking of nine professions 

 and occupations, scientists were second only 

 to physicians in both 1972 and 1974, with 

 engineers in third place. 



Science and technology were believed to 

 have done "more good" than "more harm" 

 by 57 percent of the people in 1974, 

 compared with 54 percent in 1972; 31 

 percent in both years saw the impact as 

 about evenly divided between good and 

 harm. 



Among people who believe science and 

 technology do more good than harm, the 

 largest group (59 percent in 1974 and 54 

 percent in 1972) cited improvements in 

 medicine and medical research as the leading 

 benefit; among those having the view that 

 science and technology do more harm than 

 good, 'lack of concern for the environment" 

 was the most frequently mentioned example 

 (25 percent in 1974 and 27 percent in 1972). 



Science and technology were thought to 

 have caused some of our problems by 

 approximately half of the respondents in 

 both 1972 and 1974; a smaller group 

 (approximately 37 percent) believed that few 



or none of our problems were so caused, 

 while a still smaller group (less than 8 

 percent) thought that science and 

 technology were responsible for most of the 

 problems. 



The pace of change produced by science and 

 technology was viewed as "about right" by 

 some 50 percent of the public in both 1972 

 and 1974, as too fast by about 20 percent of 

 the people, and as too slow by a slightly 

 smaller percentage. 



The public expects science and technology to 

 solve, eventually, many of our major 

 problems, although the fraction expecting 

 most problems to be so solved declined from 

 30 percent in 1972 to 23 percent in 1974. 



Areas in which the public felt they would 

 most like to have taxes spent for science and 

 technology were health care, crime reduc- 

 tion, education, prevention of drug addic- 

 tion, and pollution control; areas in which 

 they would least like to have taxes spent for 

 science and technology were "space explora- 

 tion" and "developing and improving 

 weapons for national defense." 



Demographic analysis of selected questions 

 in the survey suggests that the most positive 

 attitudes toward science and technology 

 were held by men, persons between 30-59 

 years of age, those with some college 

 education, and by people whose family 

 income was $10,000 or more. 



144 



