to rate each of eight different occupations. Their 

 image of the physicist was the most remote from 

 their image of themselves. He was perceived as 

 being very "important" and "mature", but very 

 "unfriendly". 15 The biologist was perceived as 

 being about midway between the physicist and 

 the student himself, more "friendly" but less 

 "important" and "mature". Data taken on 1,011 

 students showed that high interest in physics 

 correlated most strongly with the perception of 

 it as beneficial or important, and least strongly 

 with the perception of its being mathematical or 

 technical. There was a negative correlation 

 between such interest and the perceived dif- 

 ficulty of physics. 



PURDUE OPINION POLL 



This is a 1975 survey of 2,000 high school 

 students throughout the Nation. 16 Many 

 questions were asked in order to determine the 

 attitudes and other characteristics of students 

 who choose careers in the sciences, in com- 

 parison with other students. With regard to 

 attitudes toward science and technology, 75 

 percent of all students felt that "the by-products 

 of past scientific efforts have been, on the 

 whole, beneficial to man;" 71 percent felt that 

 "overall, science and technology do more good 

 than harm." On the other hand, 69percent of the 

 respondents agreed that "money should not be 

 given for scientific research unless it has 

 practical value." (In a similarpoll taken in 1957, 

 only 26 percent agreed with this position.) Most 

 respondents favored spending tax money for 

 cancer research, improving the environment, 

 food production, and searching for alternative 

 sources of energy, but not for space research. 



'■' Thesp terms are composites ol an original fifteen 

 semantic-differential scales. 



"■ Factors Influencing the Carver Plans of Hi,s>h School 

 Students, by ArlineC. Erlick and William K.Le Bold, Report 

 of Poll 101 ol The Purdue Opinion Panel, June 1975, 

 Measurement and Research Center, Purdue University, 

 West Lafayette, Indiana 47907. This publication was 

 prepared pursuant to a grant from the National Science 

 Foundation. 



The results of the last two studies would 

 suggest that high school students do have a 

 negative image of scientists, but that it is 

 nothing new; they had the same image in 1957. 

 In their evaluations of science and technology 

 as such, high school students seem to be quite 

 close to the rest of the American population. In 

 neither case does the evidence suggest that 

 these people have recently and dramatically 

 turned against science. 



TAVISS 



A few researchers have emphasized the 

 distinction between science and technology, 

 and have tried to ascertain the attitudes of the 

 public toward technology as such. One such 

 study (briefly mentioned by Etzioni and Nunn) 

 reports on a small sample from the Boston area, 

 surveyed in 1970. 1? Strong majorities believed 

 that "machines have made life easier" and that 

 "computers make business and government 

 more efficient." On the other hand, majorities 

 almost as great felt that "people today have 

 become too dependent upon machines," and that 

 "the quality of life is better in the country than it 

 is in the city." Thus there seems to be a high 

 degree of ambivalence. 



The author notes that it is difficult to 

 interpret results of this kind in the absence of 

 more detailed information. Respondents have a 

 tendency to respond "yes" to all questions, and 

 there is also the difficulty of knowing how 

 deeply these attitudes are held. They may be 

 only vague "philosophical" commitments, or 

 they may actually be beliefs that would affect 

 behavior and other attitudes. The author 

 suspects that the former is the case. 



Whatever its significance, Taviss notes that 

 this ambivalence toward technology has in- 

 creased since the 1957 SRC study. Still, over 

 three-fourths of the sample queried agreed that 



'"Irene Taviss, "A Survej ol Popular Attitudes toward 

 Technology", Technology and Culture, Vol. 13, No. 4 (Oct. 

 1972). pp. I.Ohll. 



88 



CONFIDENCE IN SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY 



