Science on social media: a buffer or reinforcer of inequality?

Abstract

In order to provide the public with more scientific knowledge, lectures and talks about science are organized that people can go to voluntarily. In this research, the socio-demographic composition of the people who attend these lectures is investigated. According to the theory, higher educated people are more likely to attend these lectures. Reasons for this are not just lack of understanding and lack of interest among lower educated people, but also habitus plays a role. This concept, developed by Bourdieu (1990), defines why people feel (un)comfortable in a place or situation depending on the environment that they grew up in. Furthermore, this research investigates a moderating relationship of seeing science on social media on the relationship between educational level and attending the lectures or talks about science. We expect a negative moderating relationship, because we theorize that seeing science on social media could work as a buffer on the direct relationship. For this research, an existing dataset by PewResearch was used with a sample size of 2731 respondents. Logistic regression analysis was used in order to test the hypotheses. In line with what was expected, the results show a positive relationship between educational level and attending the lectures and talks about science. The moderating effect, however, was found to be not significant. In the conclusion and discussion section, these findings are explained. Furthermore, limitations, suggestions for future research and policy advice are discussed.