ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the authors propose a new cultural distance model and try to define a new system for examining the relative difficulty levels of different items. The Raza cultural distance model uses the per cent of scientifically correct responses to a scientific concept intuitively to capture the cultural distance in public's understanding in terms of years of modern education which is referred to as 'Index of Democratisation' by its authors. The authors argue that there are multiple socio-cultural variables that impact knowledge, attitude and cultural authority of science in India. They identify the role of socio-economic artefacts such as education, income level, gender, sector of residence etc. in explaining cultural authority of science in India. The authors discuss why there was a need of a new cultural distance model, the methodology adopted for estimation of the cultural distance, significance and validity of the model, components contributing to the cultural distance and the results of the regressions run.
