efforts to push applied research which has an 

 immediate practical application. 



SUMMARY (Part I) 



The main conclusion that can be drawn from 

 the preceding discussion is that there is 

 considerable anxiety in the research community 

 over what they regard as a decline in the 

 public's confidence in science and scientists. 

 This decline is believed to be responsible for 

 certain unfavorable attitudes within govern- 

 ment, at both the State and Federal levels. These 

 attitudes in turn lead to actions by government 

 that are detrimental to research. In the eyes of 

 the respondents, this is at least part of the 

 explanation for the many individual problems 

 facing research in the near future. 



Some respondents offered reasons for the 



decline they perceived in public confidence. 

 Very broadly, there seems to have been a 

 growing anti-intellectualism in American socie- 

 ty over the last 5 or 10 years. There has also, 

 allegedly, been a loss in public confidence in 

 "establishment" institutions generally. Science 

 has been affected by both of these develop- 

 ments. Some respondents attributed a decline in 

 public confidence to a failure of science to live 

 up to its promises. There is also a feeling that 

 the public perceives science more and more as a 

 positive threat. 



There was widespread agreement that the 

 public does not adequately understand science 

 or appreciate its importance. Accordingly, the 

 respondents saw an urgent need for improved 

 communication between the scientific com- 

 munity and the public, and even for a program 

 of education directed to the public. 



CONFIDENCE IN SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY 



81 



