Science Capital: Results from a Finnish Population Survey

Abstract

Societies are confronted with significant and complex global challenges such as pandemics, climate change and the biodiversity crisis, which call for citizens’ better understanding of scientific information and its use in everyday decision-making. To narrow the gap between scientific knowledge and the public’s perceptions and everyday actions we need to know more about the factors that impact interest and positive attitudes toward science as well as understanding and acceptance of scientific information. Science capital, a concept that extends the bourdieusian notions of social and cultural capital to science, has been proposed to be an important factor in how people can understand and interact with science in their daily lives. In the present study, we examined science capital by conducting a population survey among Finnish adults. Participants (N=1,572) answered to 37 items concerning different aspects of science capital in addition to background questions of age, gender, education, and parental education. Exploratory factor analysis suggested that the science capital items formed four factors: visiting science-related places, science attitudes, science-related self-efficacy, and experienced early support to study science. Confirmatory factor analyses supported the four-factor solution. The results of structural equation models showed that older respondents had lower levels of science-related self-efficacy, they had experienced less early support, and showed more negative attitudes toward science than younger respondents. Higher education as well as higher parental education were associated with higher science capital across the four factors. Interestingly, age and education were stronger predictors of science-related self-efficacy and experienced early encouragement for men than for women, and mother’s education had a weaker association to science-related self-efficacy for men than for women. The present results shed new light to the concept of science capital and provide pointers for developing science-teaching interventions and policies that increase the acceptance and use of scientific information in society.

Citizen scientists’ motivation to participate in environmental DNA (eDNA) surveys: A case study on monitoring mammals in the UK

“…Interestingly, having a family member, friend or peer within the community with a science-related job or qualification was not prominent for this group of volunteers (Fig. S1; Kaakinen et al 2023). Research suggests that CS projects tend to attract individuals with high levels of science capital, which emphasises the need to recognise potential barriers to participation in CS, such as limited accessibility, resources, language, and technological literacy challenges (Edwards et al, 2018;Cooper et al 2021;Pateman et al, 2021).…”

“…It can be measured by assessing individuals' scientific literacy, and exposure to sciencerelated media and participation in science-related activities (Archer et al 2015;Jones 2021Jones , 2022. However, it has not been extensively measured for adults (Kaakinen et al 2023). Science capital plays an important role in shaping individuals' involvement in science-related activities and their overall understanding and appreciation of science (Bourdieu 1984;Archer et al 2015).…”