Special: Measuring Public Attitudes - Dr Cary Funk and Dr Courtney Johnson from the Pew Research Centre

The Pew Research Centre is a fact tank which focuses on issues, attitudes and trends shaping the world. They study U.S. politics and policy; journalism and media; internet, science and technology; religion and public life; global attitudes and trends; and U.S. social and demographic trends. To carry out such research, the team at Pew Research Centre conduct public opinion polling, demographic research, content analysis and other data-driven social science research. You can read more about Pew Research Centre on their website.

In this episode, we speak to Drs Cary Funk and Courtney Johnson. Cary is the director of science and society research at Pew Research Centre, where she leads the Centre’s efforts to understand the implications of science for society.  She has authored or co-authored a number of reports focused on public trust in science, scientific experts and science news and information. Dr Courtney Johnson is a research associate at Pew Research Centre whose work focuses on interrelation between science and society. Cary and Courtney discuss some of the research conducted by Pew into public perceptions of the relationship between science and religion, and in particular, on beliefs about evolution. Focusing on the methodological approach taken at Pew, our guests reflect on the importance of survey design and how the way in which questions are asked can impact the data generated.