Untersuchungen ergaben, dass Personen, die sich als politisch konservativ bezeichnen, eher Skepsis gegenüber klinischen Studien zum Ausdruck bringen als Personen mit gemäßigten oder liberalen Ideologien. Dieses Muster steht im Einklang mit einer breiteren Polarisierung des Vertrauens gegenüber wissenschaftlichen Institutionen und staatlichen Gesundheitsbehörden
https://www.cancertherapyadvisor.com/news/political-ideology-clinical-trials/
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Individuals who identify as politically conservative were more likely to express skepticism about clinical trials than those with moderate or liberal ideologies, according to findings published in a research letter in JAMA Network Open.
Researchers found similar trends of political ideology influencing clinical trial skepticism when they looked only at cancer survivors.
“This pattern is consistent with broader polarization in trust toward scientific institutions and government health agencies, as well as variable participation in clinical trials,” the researchers wrote.
The cross-sectional study used data from the National Cancer Institute’s Health Information National Trends Survey 7 (HINTS 7), conducted in 2024, to examine the link between political ideology and clinical trial skepticism. The HINTS 7 survey asked individuals to respond on a 5-point Likert scale (strongly agree to strongly disagree) with the following statement: “People should be suspicious of clinical trials.” The primary exposure was political ideology: liberal, moderate, or conservative.
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2847807
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I think the issue is exacerbated by the sheer amount of studies that are being done (most of which would never have been publicized before the internet) where we find after reading the sensationalized headline that they had a sample size of 11 people.
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Seems like a pretty obvious result, but I really need to gripe about how they present the data. Instead of writing „31% of conservatives are suspicious of clinical trials“ they write and present it as „30% of the suspicious respondents were conservatives.“ The sample of moderates/liberals/conservatives are close enough that the result doesn’t really change, but this prevents you from parsing through the other demographics. For example you can’t find out what percentage of men were suspicious, you can only see that 35% of the men surveyed were conservative.
Should probably be seen together with research that has shown that being stupid is correlated with being conservative, as well as research that has shown that being conservative is correlated with being more likely to resort to violence.
Is this because “conservatives” won’t believe anything reasonable and moderates and liberals do?“
Or
Is it because “conservatives” read studies and find what they believe to be questionable design and methodologies while “moderates” and “liberals” believe whatever is published in a scientific sounding journal?
Maybe some of both?
Our scientific institutions have also contributed to people’s skepticism by dumbing down research for public consumption, which inevitably misrepresents some findings and becomes fodder for science deniers.
It’s almost like every conservative talking head since Rush has been sewing distrust in science…