Loving Life? Loving Science? Quality of Life Perceptions Predict Public Attitudes Toward Science

Abstract This study explores a previously unstudied avenue of understanding public attitudes toward science, suggesting that perceived quality of life predicts science attitudes. This relationship is investigated in two cross-national surveys, the Special Eurobarometer 516 and the World Values Survey round 7. As a theoretical basis for the relationship, three mechanisms are proposed; that people employ quality of life perceptions as an evaluative tool for gauging the success of science, affective spillover between individual concerns and science attitudes, and expected exclusion from science based on life circumstance. Across measures of quality of life perceptions, and across the clear majority of countries investigated, higher quality of life perceptions are positively related to promise of science (societal impact), but not to reservations about science (moral and social consequences).