The French trust more the sciences they perceive as precise and consensual

Past research has shown that in the US, people’s trust in science varies considerably between disciplines. Here, we show that this is the case also for France: A representative sample of the French population (N = 1,012) trusted researchers in biology and physics more than researchers studying climate science, economics, or sociology. We further show that trust differences within and between disciplines are associated with perceptions of consensus and precision: the more precise and consensual people perceive findings of a discipline to be, the more they tend to trust it. While these findings remain correlational, they are predicted by the rational impression account of trust in science, and they could have practical implications in terms of science communication.