Page 9 - Standard Indicators for the social appropriation of science

Cosmovision and worldviews of the
university European students

worldview and the construction of the scales of and morality, which help to advance how
values that people construct to relate socially, science is evaluated, in a period in which
the British anthropologist Mary Douglas science is more accessible to all audiences
conceptualised through her work Natural than in previous generations. Therefore, there
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Symbols: Explorations in Cosmology the is considerable scope for future research, as
1
fundamental models of individual thought and pointed out by Sbaffi & Rowley. These authors
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behaviour in different contemporary societies. detail the importance of sociodemographic
With the PERSIST_EU project (Knowledge, variables focused on improving understanding,
beliefs, Perceptions about Science of trust, and health information judgments.
European Students), we wanted to identify if Recently, Sammut & Bauer explained in a
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the level of confidence, perception, attitude study that all the influences individuals have
and, ultimately, the cosmovision of European could be described through a systematic
university students on science issues, would overview of the different modalities of social
change after participating in training activities influence, including crowding, leadership,
(Science camps) or, on the contrary, they conformity, obedience, persuasion, the media
would remain unchanged. Therefore, we and artefacts. Sammut & Bauer have called it
wanted to know if training would be a key the ‘cyclone’ model of social influence, which
element that would allow changing the scale would regulate society’s historical evolution
of values on the European university student through normalisation, maintenance, and the
body’s science issues. The sociodemographic challenge of common sense.
profiles of those who have proactive or passive
attitudes towards science knowledge and, The PERSIST_EU project’s philosophy is to
above all, people who are in favour or against determine the attitude and point of view that
certain science advances have been widely European students have on science topics,
studied over the last decades. 2 which could be socially controversial, such as
vaccines, climate change, genetically modified
Likewise, the perception of science has also organisms, or complementary and alternative
been studied from a belief system that shares medicines. Other topics such as gene editing,
motivational functions with religious and organ transplants, nuclear energy, fracking,
political ideologies, but also with motivation radiation, etc., were also being considered for

1. Douglas, M. (2004). Natural symbols: Explorations in cosmology. Routledge.
2. a) Bauer, M., Durant, J., & Evans, G. (1994). European public perceptions of science. International Journal of
Public Opinion Research, 6(2), 163-186; b) Osborne, J., Simon, S., & Collins, S. (2003). Attitudes towards science: A
review of the literature and its implications. International Journal of Science Education, 25(9), 1049-1079; c) George,
R. (2006). A cross-domain analysis of change in students’ attitudes toward science and attitudes about the utility of
science. International Journal of Science Education, 28(6), 571-589; d) Rubin, A., Pellegrini, G., & Šottník, L. (2020).
Role of Science Communication in beliefs, perceptions and knowledge of science and technology issues among
European citizens. In EGU General Assembly 2020. Online, 4-8 May 2020, EGU2020–2943.
3. Rutjens, B. T., Heine, S. J., Sutton, R. M., & van Harreveld, F. (2018). Attitudes towards science. In Advances in
Experimental Social Psychology, 57, 125-165.
4. Sbaffi, L., & Rowley, J. (2017). Trust and credibility in web-based health information: a review and agenda for future
research. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 19(6), e218.
5. Sammut, G., & Bauer, M. W. (2021). The Psychology of Social Influence: Modes and Modalities of Shifting Common
Sense. Cambridge University Press.

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