AIAS Seminar: 'Have people stopped listening to science? How citizens gauge the authority of expert knowledge'

Abstract

A 2024 report from the World Economic Forum found that global elites rank misinformation as the most severe global risk – even surpassing climate change and war. This fear of misinformation and 'anti-science attitudes' rumbles under many controversies in the present ranging from measles outbreaks to climate denials and populist revolts. This talk presents key results from a larger research project that investigates what makes lay citizens accept, resist or ignore expertise, whether the expertise comes from their doctor, from science and professional experts, or from government institutions. The project combines quantitative approaches from political psychology with qualitative and interpretive approaches from the sociology of knowledge, expertise and professions.

Short Bio

Lars Thorup Larsen, PhD, is an associate professor in the Department of Political Science, Aarhus University whose research interests are the sociology of professions and expertise, professional authority, health policy and morality politics. His research has appeared in Sociology, Political Studies, Current Sociology, European Societies, Journal of European Public Policy, the Journal of Professions and Organization,  Sociological Inquiry, History of the Human Sciences, and Social Science and Medicine.

What is an AIAS Seminar?

The AIAS Seminar Series is a session of seminars held by the AIAS fellows, AIAS Visiting or Tandem Fellows or by other speakers proposed by the fellows. In each seminar, a fellow will present and discuss her/his current research and work-in-progress to an interdisciplinary audience for 30 minutes, closing off with 30 minutes for questions, comments and discussion.

All seminars are in-person and held in English. To attend online, please contact us at info@aias.au.dk by 9:00am on the day of the seminar as the latest to request a link.