Trust Science with What? Trust-Building Dialogue Between Scientists and the Public

The lack of public trust in science poses a challenge for the kind of coordination required to resolve pressing social and environmental issues. The reasons for this lack of trust are many, but I argue that one such reason includes disagreement regarding the proper role of science in our shared lives. When people are asked to “trust the science”, it is often unclear what that amounts to. People are rightfully wary of handing scientists a blank signed check when they don’t understand how it will be cashed. In this paper, I propose a framework for trust-building negotiations aimed at identifying and resolving disagreements regarding the scope of science. I use this framework to understand current distrust in vaccine science.