Uploaded August 2026 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
A scientific journal endorses a candidate for president. Does that change how much you should trust science?
Across three studies around the 2020 and 2024 elections, a political endorsement lowered trust in science among conservatives and moderates. Among liberals, it did not move at all (Syropoulos et al., 2026).
There are two ways to read that. One is motivated skepticism. The other is simpler: a journal endorsing a candidate is a conflict of interest, and losing some trust is a reasonable response. As the saying goes, bias is like bad breath. We mostly notice it in other people.
So what earns trust back? When scientists act as honest brokers, laying out the costs and benefits and leaving the choice to the public, people trust them more than when they shut the debate down. The biggest gains come from the people who disagreed with the policy.
The answer is not silence. It is restraint: respond to specific threats, stay narrow, and acknowledge the trade-offs. Trust is the one asset science cannot afford to spend.
Adapted from Shiri Spitz Siddiqi, "Political endorsements hurt scientists' credibility, but not with the people who could fix it." Read the full essay on Free the Inquiry: freetheinquiry.com/p/political-endorsements-erode-trust
#Shorts #HeterodoxAcademy #OpenInquiry #TrustInScience #ViewpointDiversity
A scientific journal endorses a candidate for president. Does that change how much you should trust science?
Across three studies around the 2020 and 2024 elections, a political endorsement lowered trust in science among conservatives and moderates. Among liberals, it did not move at all (Syropoulos et al., 2026).
There are two ways to read that. One is motivated skepticism. The other is simpler: a journal endorsing a candidate is a conflict of interest, and losing some trust is a reasonable response. As the saying goes, bias is like bad breath. We mostly notice it in other people.
So what earns trust back? When scientists act as honest brokers, laying out the costs and benefits and leaving the choice to the public, people trust them more than when they shut the debate down. The biggest gains come from the people who disagreed with the policy.
The answer is not silence. It is restraint: respond to specific threats, stay narrow, and acknowledge the trade-offs. Trust is the one asset science cannot afford to spend.
Adapted from Shiri Spitz Siddiqi, "Political endorsements hurt scientists' credibility, but not with the people who could fix it." Read the full essay on Free the Inquiry: freetheinquiry.com/p/political-endorsements-erode-trust
#Shorts #HeterodoxAcademy #OpenInquiry #TrustInScience #ViewpointDiversity
