Many countries are in a crisis of confidence. In the UK, polls show deep distrust in politicians. Trust in business, journalism, the police and the judiciary is also falling. But there is one institution that still inspires widespread respect: science. Politicians have a net trust score of -75%, while scientists have a score of 58%.

When people are asked what makes them optimistic about the future, the top three answers are medical advances, new technologies, and research and innovation. Fourthly: nothing. These findings, from British research conducted this year by global charity Wellcome and polling organization More in Common in London (see go.nature.com/4vqskh3), suggest that at a time when the public can feel divided and despondent, science is a rare source of shared optimism and even pride.

Have people stopped trusting science? The data tells a surprising story

But that position is more fragile than it seems. More information about Common’s seven-segment model, which groups people according to measures of their underlying values ​​and worldviews, can detect changes in trust that headline surveys may miss. Much of what was found is reassuring: many institutions would envy the trust that science enjoys. But there are clear signs of tension and, for some groups, confidence has given way to caution.

Of those surveyed, 34% said they trust science “a lot,” up from 63% in 2020. And across all seven segments, trust is clearly positive. However, for the most skeptical groups, it is almost 60 percentage points lower than for the most confident.

Most people in the UK do not believe that science is politically biased. But the least trusting groups are the most likely to perceive bias (often citing the COVID-19 pandemic as an example) and say this has reduced their trust. Public support and consent for scientific research cannot be taken for granted, and recent years have seen changes in public opinion in areas that previously felt settled.

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This deserves attention. The UK is not the US, where trust in science has become polarized by political identity. But there are warning signs. Those who do perceive a political bias are twice as likely to say they are left-wing than right-wing. Right-leaning segments tend to be less trusting than those who lean left or are centrist.

Surprisingly, scientists focus on the two most left-wing segments. UK scientists are more left-wing than the British public.

Among the public, 12% are classified as “progressive activists,” strongly motivated by social justice and global issues, and 21% are the more moderate “incrementalist left.” In Wellcome’s survey of 142 scientists (a small but significant sample), almost 40% were progressive activists and another 26% were left-incrementalists. Two-thirds of scientists lean left, compared to one-third of the general public. Only a fifth of scientists belong to the three most conservative segments, compared to about half of the public.