It isn't what you know, it's what you think you know - EurekAlert

A new study publishing January 24 th in the open access journal PLOS Biology by Cristina Fonseca of the Genetics Society, UK; Laurence Hurst of the Milner Centre for Evolution, University of Bath, UK; and colleagues, finds that people with strong attitudes tend to believe they understand science, while neutrals are less confident.

Overall, the study revealed that that people with strong negative attitudes to science tend to be overconfident about their level of understanding.

Whether it be vaccines, climate change or GM foods, societally important science can evoke strong and opposing attitudes.

A few prior analyses found that individuals that are negative towards science tend to have relatively low textbook knowledge but strong self-belief in their understanding.

The current team could replicate the prior results finding that those most negative tend also not to have high textbook knowledge.

The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.