National Journal: “The survey question was very simple: How much should a politician defer to the science community in making policy decisions?”
“Researchers at the University of Texas at Austin asked 2,000 registered voters this question on a variety of issues—such as global warming/climate change, health insurance, and stem-cell research. The results … show that, yes, Democrats do show stronger support for the scientific community across all topics surveyed.”
“But here’s the point worth thinking about: That does not necessarily mean that Republicans are anti-science across the board. The topics on which Republicans were most likely to have doubts on are ‘gay adoption,’ ‘mandatory health insurance,’ and ‘teaching evolution and the origins of humans.’ These topics are hostile to a traditionally conservative worldview. (Also recently published in the Annals, was a study showing that liberals can also exhibit a similar, but smaller, anti-science bias when presented with information that is hostile to the liberal worldview.) But overall, Republicans generally support scientific expertise.”