Why are the less educated in democracies especially anti-science?

This is not exactly what I was hoping to hear, but at this point along the road you know none of the stories are going to be pretty:

…less educated citizens in democracies are considerably less trustful of science than their counterparts in non-democracies. Further analyses suggest that, instead of being the result of stronger religiosity or lower science literacy, the increase in skepticism in democracies is mainly driven by a shift in the mode of legitimation, which reduces states’ ability and willingness to act as key public advocates for science. These findings help shed light on the institutional sources of “science-bashing” behaviors in many long-standing democracies.

In particular:

…democracies are significantly less likely to make references to science in their constitutions, and award a smaller share of high state honors to scientists.

Lower democratic trust in government, as found in democracies, also translates into lower trust in science, at least among the less educated citizens.  An autocratic regime is more likely to invoke modernization and science as a form of attempted legitimization.

For poorly educated individuals, the countries where trust in science is highest are Kuwait, China, Kazakhstan, Spain, Tanzania, Gambia, Tajikistan, Myanmar, UAE, and Uzbekistan, three of those being former Soviet Union.  For college degree and above, the countries where trust in science is highest are Philippines, India, Belgium, Denmark, Norway, Ireland, Finland, Spain, Tajikistan, and Czech Republic.

Sad!

Here is the full paper by Jiang and Wan, via the excellent Kevin Lewis.

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