Survey
Dutch people are increasingly sceptical that AI can advance science
Photo: 123rf
Since 2012, the Rathenau Institute has asked Dutch people how much they trust institutions like academia, the judiciary, and the government. The latest report shows that Dutch citizens still trust science relatively highly.
On a scale of 1 to 10, they gave academia an average score of 7.4 this year. That's a slight decrease compared with last year, when they gave it a 7.5.
Dutch people trust science considerably more than other institutions. For example, the judiciary scores a 6.5 and the press a 5.7. Citizens don't trust television very much (4.9), and the same can be said of the House of Representatives (4.6). The government is trusted even less (4.3). Respondents completed the questionnaire last January, just before the new cabinet took office.
Artificial intelligence
The Rathenau Institute also measures people's confidence in AI's scientific potential. This confidence appears to have fallen sharply over the past two years.
In 2024, a European study revealed that 60 per cent of Dutch people believed that artificial intelligence would solve major scientific challenges such as climate change and serious diseases. Now, that proportion has fallen to 37 per cent.
According to a survey Elsevier conducted last year, over 50 per cent of researchers in the Netherlands use AI, which is problematic because scientists increasingly cite non-existent publications.
Wallets
For years, trust in science seemed linked to educational level, but that's not the whole story. Trust in academia appears to be primarily linked to people’s financial circumstances, writes the Rathenau Institute. Although the researchers did not ask about income, people who feel they are making ends meet tend to trust academia more.
“This is not definitive proof that educational levels have absolutely no effect,” says Jelle Slief, the study’s lead researcher, in a press release. “But household income seems to be a better predictor than educational level, and that certainly gives us food for thought.”
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