Building Public Support for Science Spending: Misinformation, Motivated Reasoning, and the Power of Corrections

While most Americans support scientific research, few favor an increase in federal investment. This opposition is driven in large part by misinformation about the actual level of governmental support for science. Employing an experiment embedded on a nationally representative survey, we find that most Americans significantly overestimate the share of the federal budget allocated to scientific research. Correcting this misperception significantly increases support for additional science spending. We find little evidence that subjects engage in motivated reasoning when confronted with this correction. Information about the low level of existing funding increased support for investment in science across partisan and ideological divides.