COMPARING SKILLS AND ATTITUDES OF SCIENTISTS, MUSICIANS, POLITICIANS AND STUDENTS

Résumé 0

"In order to study the presumed existence of specialized skills and attitudes related to scientists, questionnaires sent to authors publishing during the last three years in academic journals from different disciplines, and to elected members of Latin American parliaments, were analyzed. To correlate skills and attitudes with success in science the questionnaire was also sent to a targeted group of scientists in Venezuela and Russia. In addition, first year higher education students from different countries were questioned. To tease out the effect of age and culture the results from all the three groups were compared. A discriminant factor analysis of the results grouped the different branches of the natural and life sciences in a single compact cluster showing that natural scientists from different disciplines share fundamental values, skills and attitudes. The social sciences clustered in another separate group. Musicians and politicians fell far outside both clusters. Low levels of religiosity in research scientists were also found. Politicians differed most from natural scientists, whereas social scientists were somewhat intermediate between these two extreme groups. Despite the fact that our samples came from very different populations, reflecting different interests, backgrounds, nationalities and cultures, a relationship between religiosity, skepticism and belief in science was detected. Similarities among students of the five countries studied, and among all researchers sampled, were significantly greater than cultural similarities between students and researchers of the same country, showing that recognizable sub-cultures driven by their interest in science are being formed."