Scientists’ Views About Nature of Science in the Context of Socioscientific Issues

The purpose of this study was to (a) examine how scientists view three nature of science (NOS) aspects (subjective, tentative, and empirical) in the context of three controversial socioscientific issues (SSI) and (b) how the SSI context moderate how scientists view the NOS aspects. Participants were 102 scientists in distinct science disciplines across the USA. They completed a questionnaire that consists of three scenarios addressing controversial ecological SSI about genetically modified food (GMF), global warming (GW), and water fluoridation (WF). The investigation used a qualitative design to compare the responses of scientists across the different SSI contexts. Quantitative and qualitative analyses were conducted to answer the research questions. Results showed that scientists’ views of the subjective aspect were consistent regardless of the context, while their views of the tentative and empirical aspects were influenced by the context/scenario, particularly the GW and WF. Several possible explanations were put forth in the study. The study concludes with implications and suggestions for future research.