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The Center for American Progress reports:
A new study finds that scientists are seen as highly competent, and climate scientists in particular have the trust of Americans.
Unfortunately, that isn't seen as a very clickworthy finding—at least in our modern cynical age—so the authors of the study and the news release chose to spin the results as "Scientists Seen as Competent But Not Trusted by Americans." If you search that headline, you'll find thousands of results for articles on and links to this Princeton study.
You'd never guess from the headline or the news release, that when the researchers surveyed "public attitudes toward climate scientists" on a "seven-item scale of distrust," they found "distrust is low."
Frankly, the communication of the actual results of this entire study are abysmal, which is especially ironic since the title of the study is "Gaining trust as well as respect in communicating to motivated audiences about science topics." I'm afraid Princeton has gained neither here.
Related: Scientists Seen as Competent but Not Trusted by Americans
(Score: 2) by urza9814 on Friday September 26 2014, @03:07PM
"On a seven item scale, distrust was found to be 2"
Is 2 high or low?
Perhaps the seven items were 'very low / low/ somewhat low / moderate / somewhat high / high / very high' in which case saying it was low would be exactly the same as giving a value of 2...but without the need to the explain what that 2 actually means.