- January 22, 2026
- By Philip N. Cohen And Micah Altman
A growing distrust of expertise is reshaping the terrain of science in the United States, according to a University of Maryland researcher and a fellow social scientist.
Since the pandemic, the partisan divide over science has widened dramatically, according to a a new analysis by Philip N. Cohen, UMD sociology professor. While 77% of Americans have at least a fair amount of confidence that scientists act in the best interests of the public, that breaks down to 90% of Democrats and 65% of Republicans.
He and Micah Altman, research scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Libraries, wrote in The Conversation on Thursday that if people think scientists are trying to impose their political beliefs rather than expressing honest scientific judgments in the pursuit of truth, public trust in expert consensus will continue to erode.
With recent events, such as Robert F. Kennedy Jr. replacing the expert vaccine panel at the Department of Health and Human Services, and the Trump administration threatening to withdraw research funding from universities that don’t follow its ideological dictates, the political divide in public perception may grow even deeper.
Skepticism is sometimes justified, of course. But a system based on expertise is the best one modern democracies have come up with to offer guidance on the various complex issues they face.
Read the rest in The Conversation.
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