A Study of Social Trust in Science and Its Effective Factors

Trust has transformed as a consequence of modernity. In pre-modernity, trust predominantly involved face-to-face communication between two wellacquainted individuals. In modernity, people trust abstract expert systems (e.g., economic, legal, political and scientific systems). In this paper, we try to investigate some of the issues of social trust in science. At first, we give a definition of trust in science, then, we investigate history and types of trust in science, theories of trust in science, and factors affecting public trust in science. In fact, the aim of this research is to investigate the historical process, theories, and factors affecting social trust in science. This is a library and documentary research. This study shows that in the classical period of ‘academic science’ we observed high levels of trust. But relatively lower levels of trust, or at least a downward tendency, can be discerned in the present period of ‘post-academic science’. Also, this paper argues that the visibility of negative events, tend to reinforce distrust, media use, familiarity, and interpersonal communication are the most important psychological and social factors affecting public trust in science.