突发风险事件中公众对科学家的信任及其影响因素研究

Public Trust in Scientists during Risk Event and Its Influencing Factors

公众对科学家的系统信任是现代社会运行的基础,在风险情境下发挥着提高风险治理效率、稳定社会心态等特殊作用.通过对新冠肺炎疫情爆发期间湖北省居民调查数据的分析,研究讨论了在突发风险事件中公众对科学家的信任状况及其影响机制的变化.结果显示,疫情期间我国公众对科学家给予了高度信任,个人的科学素养、媒介使用、信息获得、社会网络和价值观等因素影响着公众对科学家的信任,科学素养较高者、希望媒体传播正能量者更信任科学家,而频繁使用互联网媒体者、获知科学家负面信息者、网络中有科学家成员者和相信谣言者则对科学家更加不信任.这些结论呼应了以往的研究结果,说明在"常态社会"情境中起作用的影响因素在风险事件情境下也对科学家信任发挥着重要作用.研究还发现疫情的冲击使得人们对科学家的信任水平有所提升,受疫情影响越大的人对科学家信任水平也越高.疫情冲击还对公众对科学家信任形成机制起到调节作用,疫情带来的风险和不确定性可以在一定程度上缩小不同社会群体在科学家信任问题上的分歧,有助于凝聚社会共识.最后就研究的理论和政策意义进行了讨论.

Based on a survey of Hubei Province dwellers conducted in the early phase of COVID-19 in 2020,the paper discusses public trust in scientists in risk event context and its influencing factors.The results show that Chinese public kept a high-level trust in scientist during COVID-19 in early 2020.Scientific literacy,media usage,information attainment,social networks and value system have strong impacts on public trust in scientist.People with higher scientific literacy tends to trust scientists more,whilst people who use internet more often,have scientists in their networks,and believe in rumors tend to distrust scientists.It is also found that COVID-19 has brought about a positive impact on public trust in scientists.Those who suffered more from COVID-19 tends to have higher trust in scientists.The interaction effects between COVID-19 impacts and other independent variables are found in the study,indicating that risk and uncertainty brought by COVID-19 could help to diminish the gap between different social groups in terms of social trust.Theoretical and policy implications of the study are discussed in the end of the paper.