ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the authors explore the public perception of science and technology (S&T) in Argentina with a double methodological strategy. They provide a longitudinal perspective to examine how the public perception has evolved during the period 2003–2015, evaluating stability and change. The authors use a different approach, by implementing a structural analysis of the last national survey (2015) data with the multivariate approximation provided by the Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) technique. They also provide a strong positive association in Argentina among interest, understanding and engagement in the sense that people more knowledgeable and more interested are more engaged in the consumption of information about science and the participation in activities of cultural diffusion. The authors present evidence that the cultural authority of science is a combination of at least, four factors: interest, understanding, engagement and attitudes.
