Indifferent, Dogmatic or Pragmatic: A Multi-Country Analysis of How Scientists View the Public and Public Engagement

How do scientists view the public and think about public engagement? In this article, we analyze interview data from 205 scientists in the fields of biology and physics from four countries — India, Italy, UK, and the USA — to show that scientists do not perceive the public as a monolithic entity. Three distinct kinds of publics were described by scientists, which we analytically characterize as “indifferent”, “dogmatic”, and “pragmatic”, and discuss in relation to major trends in extant literature. Our analysis showed that the respondents in our sample represented advanced and nuanced understandings of the public. Even though the deficit model still persists, and the preferred mode of public engagement remains science education and mostly (one-way) science communication, the purpose and focus of education and communication differ according to scientists’ orientations. We also identify discipline- and country-specific variations that warrant further investigation.