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Metric Properties of Two Forms of the Attitudes Toward Scientists Scale

Past studies suggest links between science denial in specific areas of research (such as climate change and media violence effects) with negative global attitudes towards science (Lewandowsky et al., 2013 ; Nauroth et al., 2014). However, no well-validated measures have been developed measuring attitudes towards scientists. To address this gap in the literature, a 78-item scale of Attitudes towards Scientists (ATS) was constructed. Metric properties of the initial version of the scale suggested that the scale should be shortened (Prot, 2015). Two 28- item alternate forms of scale were formed using clustering algorithms (Prot & Prot, 2017a, 2017b). The two forms (ATS-A and ATS-B), were measured in a sample of 217 freshmen students from the Faculty of Kinesiology in Zagreb. Participants were measured four times over the course of the semester in four- to five-week intervals. In the fourth time point, attitudes towards specific scientific fields were also measured, including physics, chemistry, biology, medicine, astronomy, climate science, psychology, sociology, archeology, anthropology and kinesiology. Metric properties of ATS-A and ATS-B were determined for items and total results in four time points. The reliability of two scale forms was established by Cronbach’s coefficient of internal consistency ; all values are high, ranging from 0, 88 to 0.95. The validity of the ATS scales was examined by correlations with eleven total results in the Scale of Attitudes towards Scientific Fields and correlations with the first principal component of eleven fields assessment. Correlations with the separate total result of each field are low to medium, highest value is 0, 41 ; correlations with the first principal component are higher, ranging from 0, 30 to 0, 47. It can be concluded that both forms of the Attitudes towards Scientists scale are instruments with good metric characteristics.

Attitudes Toward Scientists Scale ; Alternate forms ; Metric properties

SIMPOZIJ 3 / SYMPOSIUM 3 SCIENCE DENIAL, ATTITUDES TOWARDS SCIENTISTS AND PSYCHOLOGY OF FREEDOM Convener: Sara Prot Coventry University, Coventry, United Kingdom Science denial is a common phenomenon occurring in various areas such as climate change, vaccine safety, tobacco and violent media effects. It is often accompanied by anger and personal attacks on individual researchers (Lewandowski et al., 2013) as well as development of global negative attitudes towards science and scientists (Prot et al. 2017). This symposium brings together researchers examining science denial, attitudes towards scientists and psychology of freedom. The first talk reports four correlational and experimental studies examining causal factors leading to science denial and attacks on scientists. Next, three talks examine global negative attitudes towards science and scientists. The second talk discusses metric properties of a global measure of attitudes towards scientists (the Attitudes towards Science scale, ATS), demonstrating reliability and validity across two parallel forms of the scale. The third talk examines the factor structure of the Attitudes towards Science scale in a 5-wave longitudinal study