Reacción a "Reactions to the new edition of the Social Perception Survey on Science and Technology"

FECYT's Survey of Social Perception of Science and Technology (EPSCYT) 2022 is an instrument of great social value that allows academics and institutional managers to check, every two years, the patterns and trends that occur in the Spanish population's social perception of science and technology. These results are undoubtedly a jewel for social researchers, as well as an excellent barometer to analyse whether some public policies related to science and technology are permeating Spanish society, whether there is resistance to them or whether there is a lack of knowledge, as could be the case with current issues such as the vaccine against covid-19, artificial intelligence or big data. Over the years, the survey has adapted to new realities, both in terms of diversity, becoming an inclusive sample of the Spanish reality, and in the design of the questionnaire, which is always open to incorporate new questions, depending on the social drift, adapting to the new thematic challenges of the digital and pandemic era. 

In my opinion, it was a good idea to include in EPSCYT 2022 the different reasons why people vaccinated against covid-19 could not have a booster dose ("it is not appropriate", "it is no longer so serious", "because of the effect of the previous dose", "because of health risks", "because they believe they have a low risk of infection", "because they believe it is not effective", "because of fear/distrust", etc.) and there would probably have been even more reasons for not having a booster dose. ) and there would probably have been even more surprising responses if the question had been open-ended, leaving each participant to answer spontaneously; although I am aware of the complexity involved in regrouping the responses for analysis. Nevertheless, I highlight this question because the responses of the people interviewed situate the attitude and perception of citizens in the face of a novel event in which it is not enough just to know why there is a decision to oppose a public health action, but also to know the reasons for each person, in order to find similar patterns that will start from different meanings but which will finally reach a common point of attitude, which would be not to take a booster dose.  

In relation to the volume of data produced by the survey, one of the data that continues to attract my attention today is that related to the scientific career of research staff in universities and public bodies. The people interviewed continue to rate their scientific careers as "Poorly paid" (61.7%), "Poor social recognition" (62.7%) and "No job stability" (61.8%). Knowing these data continues to cause me great unease because in the research teams we have incorporated people who are in training programmes to carry out their doctoral theses and are usually quite demotivated, as they do not easily see their professional prospects on the horizon. The data corroborate that this perception is shared by those interviewed outside the world of research.  

Finally, I did miss the inclusion of a question on misinformation in EPSCYT 2022, as measuring the perception of the discourse of science versus individual interest yields extremely interesting data and shows an objective reality: the lack of information on most topics related to science, health, environment, technology, among others. Thus, it would also be interesting, when talking about the media, networks and platforms through which the interviewees inform themselves about science, to have introduced some questions about misinformation, which would have been of great interest, given the size of the sample. In any case, we are very grateful, both to the FECYT and to the entire technical team of the survey, for continuing with the commitment to provide these data, which are constituting a historical series in Spain and are of essential value for many social science research projects.