Gordon Gauchat

Politicization of Science in the Public Sphere A Study of Public Trust in the United States, 1974 to 2010

This study explores time trends in public trust in science in the United States from 1974 to 2010. More precisely, I test Mooney’s (2005) claim that conservatives in the United States have become increasingly distrustful of science. Using data from the 1974 to 2010 General Social Survey, I examine group differences in trust in science and group-specific change in these attitudes over time. Results show that group differences in trust in science are largely stable over the period, except for respondents identifying as conservative. Conservatives began the period with the highest trust in science, relative to liberals and moderates, and ended the period with the lowest. The patterns for science are also unique when compared to public trust in other secular institutions. Results show enduring differences in trust in science by social class, ethnicity, gender, church attendance, and region. I explore the implications of these findings, specifically, the potential for political divisions to emerge over the cultural authority of science and the social role of experts in the formation of public policy.

The cultural authority of science: Public trust and acceptance of organized science

Using the National Science Foundation’s 2006 Science Indicators Survey, this study explores three distinct explanations of public attitudes. First, the knowledge–attitudes model refers to a well tested relationship between public knowledge of science and more favorable attitudes toward science. Second, the alienation model hypothesizes that public disassociation with science is a symptom of a general disenchantment with late modernity, mainly, the limitations associated with codified expertise, rational bureaucracy, and institutional authority. A third approach emphasizes the cultural meaning of science: how various public beliefs about “what science is” relate to acceptance or reservations about science. The Science Indicators Survey shows that US adults view science (what it is or should be) in three distinct ways: 1) in terms of having a systematic method, 2) in terms of social location (i.e., takes place in a university or a laboratory), and 3) in terms of knowledge that should accord with commonsense and tradition. The findings in this study indicate that the knowledge–attitudes, alienation, and cultural meanings models are all valuable for understanding the cultural authority of science. However, the strength of these explanations depends on the type of attitude analyzed.

Occupational Gender Segregation, Globalization, and Gender Earnings Inequality in U.S. Metropolitan Areas:

Previous research on gender-based economic inequality has emphasized occupational segregation as the leading explanatory factor for the gender wage gap. Yet the globalization of the U.S. economy has affected gender inequality in fundamental ways and potentially diminished the influence of occupational gender segregation. We examine whether occupational gender segregation continues to be the main determinant of gender earnings inequality and to what extent globalization processes have emerged as important determinants of inequality between women’s and men’s earnings. We study factors contributing to the gender earnings ratio as well as the median earnings of men and women for 271 U.S. metropolitan areas. The results indicate that occupational segregation is still the leading determinant of gender earnings inequality, that its effects are only slightly diminished by the presence of globalization, and that various aspects of the global economy independently influence the gender earnings gap.

Use of medical homes by patients with comorbid physical and severe mental illness.

Background:Patients with comorbid severe mental illness (SMI) may use primary care medical homes differently than other patients with multiple chronic conditions (MCC). Objective:To compare medical home use among patients with comorbid SMI to use among those with only chronic physical comorbidities. Research Design:We examined data on children and adults with MCC for fiscal years 2008–2010, using generalized estimating equations to assess associations between SMI (major depressive disorder or psychosis) and medical home use. Subjects:Medicaid and medical home enrolled children (age, 6–17 y) and adults (age, 18–64 y) in North Carolina with ≥2 of the following chronic health conditions: major depressive disorder, psychosis, hypertension, diabetes, hyperlipidemia, seizure disorder, asthma, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Measures:We examined annual medical home participation (≥1 visit to the medical home) among enrollees and utilization (number of medical home visits) among participants. Results:Compared with patients without depression or psychosis, children and adults with psychosis had lower rates of medical home participation (−12.2 and −8.2 percentage points, respectively, P<0.01) and lower utilization (−0.92 and −1.02 visits, respectively, P<0.01). Children with depression had lower participation than children without depression or psychosis (−5.0 percentage points, P<0.05). Participation and utilization among adults with depression was comparable with use among adults without depression or psychosis (P>0.05). Conclusions:Overall, medical home use was relatively high for Medicaid enrollees with MCC, though it was somewhat lower among those with SMI. Targeted strategies may be required to increase medical home participation and utilization among SMI patients.

The legitimacy of environmental scientists in the public sphere

Previous research has examined public perceptions of climate change, including opinions about the severity of its effects, whether it is human caused, the degree of its exaggeration in the news media, and the level of scientific consensus on the issue. This research has shown that public beliefs about each of these aspects of climate change are politically charged. What remains understudied are the sources of environmental scientists’ authority in the broader society and whether perceptions of environmental scientists themselves are polarized. Using data from the General Social Survey’s Science and Technology Module, this study fills this gap in knowledge by examining public perceptions of environmental scientists across several dimensions. We develop and formally test a theoretical model of the legitimacy of environmental scientists in the public sphere, as measured by public support for their influence on climate policy. Consistent with other research on public beliefs about climate change, we find that perceptions of environmental scientists are polarized across multiple measures. Moreover, while previous theory and research have emphasized beliefs about scientific consensus on climate change, we find that perceptions of scientists’ understanding of the issue and the integrity of their policy advice are each stronger predictors of scientists’ legitimacy in the public sphere.

Feminist Identity, Feminist Politics U.S. Feminists’ Attitudes toward Social Policies

Feminist scholars and activists have endorsed a broad and intersectional political agenda that addresses multiple dimensions of inequality, such as gender, sexuality, race/ethnicity, and class. We examine whether or not this perspective is also held by self-identified feminists in the general public. Drawing on public opinion polls from 2007 to 2009, we assess self-identified feminists’ attitudes toward a range of social policies. We find that after controlling for sociodemographic factors and political ideology, feminist identity is associated with progressive attitudes on policies related to gender and sexuality (e.g., abortion) as well as policies related to other social justice issues (e.g., immigration, health care). We also find some interactions between feminist identity and gender, age, education, and political ideology, suggesting some heterogeneity in feminists’ political attitudes. Overall, these findings suggest that feminists in the general public support an intersectional social justice agenda rather than a narrow focus on gender issues.

The Military Metropolis: Defense Dependence in U.S. Metropolitan Areas

This article examines the “military metropolis,” an urban community that depends highly on military expenditures in order to sustain economic vitality. We build on past theories of military Keynesianism and employ insights from urban political economy theory to examine the effects of defense contracts and defense personnel spending on five measures of labor market quality (median household income, income inequality, poverty 125 percent, unemployment, and casualization) in 276 U.S. metropolitan statistical areas in the year 2000. Whereas previous studies of military spending have focused primarily on nations and U.S. states, this study examines metropolitan areas. We test three hypotheses about how federal military outlays might influence urban economies: first, the defense–dependency hypothesis suggests that urban areas rely on defense dollars in varying degrees to sustain their economic stability and vitality. Second, the localized effects hypothesis proposes that defense personnel spending on military bases and civilian personnel will have more immediate effects on urban economies than spending on defense procurement contracts. Third, the gunbelt hypothesis predicts that military spending has affected urban economies unevenly, benefiting metropolitan areas in some regions of the country more than others. The results of this study support all three hypotheses. We offer interpretations of our results and discuss the policy implications for U.S. metropolitan areas. La metrópolis militar: Dependencia de los gastos de defensa en áreas metropolitanas de los Estados Unidos (Gordon Gauchat, Michael Wallace, Casey Borch, y Travis Scott Lowe) Resumen Este artículo analiza la “metrópolis militar”, un tipo de comunidad urbana altamente dependiente de los gastos del sector defensa para sostener su vitalidad económica. Para ello, hacemos uso de teorías previas sobre el keynesianismo militar así como ideas provenientes de la teoría sobre la economía política urbana con el fin de estudiar los efectos de los contratos con el sector defensa y los gastos en recursos humanos realizados por dicho sector en cinco indicadores de la calidad del mercado de trabajo (la media de ingresos por hogar, la desigualdad en la distribución del ingreso, los hogares que están un 125% por encima de la línea de pobreza, el desempleo y la precarización del trabajo) en 276 áreas estadísticas metropolitanas de los Estados Unidos en el año 2000. A diferencia de estudios anteriores sobre el tema en los que se han abordado naciones completas o estados de los EEUU, este estudio se concentra en las áreas metropolitanas. Ponemos a prueba tres hipótesis sobre la forma en que los gastos militares federales influencian la economía urbana. En primer lugar, la hipótesis de la dependencia de los gastos de defensa sugiere que las áreas urbanas dependen en distintos grados de los fondos invertidos en el sector defensa para sostener su estabilidad y vitalidad económicas. En segundo lugar, la hipótesis de los efectos localizados plantea que los gastos realizados para pagar el personal civil y militar en las bases tienen un impacto más inmediato en la economía urbana que el realizado a través de la obtención de contratos militares. En tercer lugar, la hipótesis de la franja militar o “gunbelt” sostiene que el gasto militar afecta las áreas urbanas de manera desigual dado que beneficia más a áreas metropolitanas en partes específicas del país que a otras. Los resultados del estudio corroboran las tres hipótesis presentadas. Finalmente, presentamos nuestras interpretaciones de los resultados al igual que algunas implicaciones en términos de políticas públicas para las áreas metropolitanas de los Estados Unidos.

Trust in climate scientists

Those who distrust climate scientists are more likely to be skeptical of climate change and reluctant to support mitigation policies. Now research shows that scientific interest in early adolescence is associated with increased trust in climate scientists in adulthood irrespective of political ideology.

Path Dependency and the Politics of Socialized Health Care

Rich democracies exhibit vast cross-national and historical variation in the socialization of health care. Yet, cross-national analyses remain relatively rare in the health policy literature, and health care remains relatively neglected in the welfare state literature. We analyze pooled time series models of the public share of total health spending for eighteen rich democracies from 1960 to 2010. Building on path dependency theory, we present a strategy for modeling the relationship between the initial 1960 public share and the current public share. We also examine two contrasting accounts for how the 1960 public share interacts with conventional welfare state predictors: the self-reinforcing hypothesis expecting positive feedbacks and the counteracting hypothesis expecting negative feedbacks. We demonstrate that most of the variation from 1960 to 2010 in the public share can be explained by a countrys initial value in 1960. This 1960 value has a large significant effect in models of 1961-2010, and including the 1960 value alters the coefficients of conventional welfare state predictors. To investigate the mechanism whereby prior social policy influences public opinion about current social policy, we use the 2006 International Social Survey Programme (ISSP). This analysis confirms that the 1960 values predict individual preferences for government spending on health. Returning to the pooled time series, we demonstrate that the 1960 values interact significantly with several conventional welfare state predictors. Some interactions support the self-reinforcing hypothesis, while others support the counteracting hypothesis. Ultimately, this study illustrates how historical legacies of social policy exert substantial influence on the subsequent politics of social policy.

The Cultural-Cognitive Mapping of Scientific Professions

Even with widespread interest, public perceptions of science remain understudied and poorly theorized by social scientists. A central issue has been the persistent assumption that publics require a base of scientific knowledge for science to have broad cultural meaning. Yet, recent advances in cultural and cognitive sociology point to alternative research programs seeking to identify how publics come to understand complex and uncertain issues, when information is incomplete and asymmetric. We use this approach to analyze data on public perceptions of how scientific different fields are from the 2006 and 2012 National Science Foundation’s Science and Technology Survey. Our multivariate analyses allow us to approximate how mass publics map the social space of scientific professions, while accounting for individuals’ social location and cultural identity (e.g., race, class, gender, age, scientific sophistication, and political ideology). We then focus our attention on public perceptions of sociology and economics. Overall, we find that public perceptions, rather than being disorganized, map onto recognizable dimensions indicating how publics distinguish between scientific professions.