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Mapping Perceptions of Science in End-of-Century Europe

This article offers an alternative to the dominant approach for analyzing public perceptions of science. The authors seek first to clarify to what extent the public at large holds defined attitudes toward science, proposing an “index of cognitive and evaluative distance.” They then present a map of perceptions of science in end-of-century Europe based on correspondence analysis, which displays some of the most salient elements of how science was appropriated in the culture of the time. The map shows that shared social and cognitive characteristics across nations act as unifying forces in public perceptions of science, while the nation variable conserves important singularities. Knowledge of science plays a very significant role in accounting for differences in value judgments about science. “Reservations,” not “promise” items, divide the perceptions of different social groups, suggesting that more weight should be given to the former in future studies.