Populist views of science: how social media, political affiliation, and Alt-Right support affect scientific attitudes in the United States

ABSTRACT

The growth of populist movements in the US necessitates further understanding of how they use social media and evaluate elites. Work on populist attitudes suggests skepticism of elites is not limited to political domains but extends into online and scientific spaces. This study draws on the recently articulated concept of science populism as well as social media usage to examine Alt-Right and institutional partisans’ attitudes toward scientific elites. Using an online survey our findings are threefold: first, Alt-Right supporters hold stronger science populist beliefs than Republicans/Democrats; second, heavy social media use bridges the gap in partisans’ science populist beliefs, as Democrats come to hold more populist attitudes with increased social media use; and third, science populist beliefs are associated with maladaptive health behaviors through lower COVID-19 vaccine intentions. We discuss implications for understanding how political affiliation and social media use are associated with populist attitudes and their potential to cause individual and societal harms.

KEYWORDS:

• Populism
• social media
• science attitudes
• online spaces
• Alt-Right
• COVID-19

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

The data underlying this article will be shared on reasonable request to the corresponding author.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Ian Hawkins

Ian Hawkins (Ph.D. University of Michigan) is an Assistant Professor at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. His research interests include examining the relationship between media and intergroup conflict and the role of digital media in promoting various forms of collective action.

Sedona Chinn

Sedona Chinn (Ph.D. University of Michigan) is an Assistant Professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her research interests include how individuals make sense of competing claims about science and the environment, as well as how social influence via new media affect perceptions of credibility.