EPJ RI Highlight - Identifying origins of anti-science sentiments for large-scale research projects

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Published on 08 June 2026

An extensive international survey reveals that only a small portion of the public has a negative perception relating to a new particle collider that could eventually be constructed at CERN. The analysis shows that their views are rooted in a mistrust in science and publicly funded projects.

Research infrastructures (RIs) are large-scale facilities that provide resources for research communities – including equipment, data archives, and communications networks. As they aim to tackle global challenges including climate change, sustainable energy, and public health, RIs are attracting increasing attention from scientists and policymakers alike.

Among the public, however, understanding of RI activities and subsequent support for public funding is often limited. So far, the factors driving these sentiments haven’t been systematically investigated, and it was unclear whether they stem from similar anti-science sentiments to those found among people who deny climate change, or in anti-vaccine movements.

Through a new study published in EPJ Research Infrastructures, Francesco Giffoni and colleagues at CSIL (Milan, Italy) and CERN (Switzerland and France), carried out a contingent value analysis, including a study of public attitudes towards a new particle collider, currently being conceived by an international collaboration hosted by CERN. The results yield valuable insights into why some members of the public would oppose such a project.

Involving about 10,000 respondents, the survey assessed public perception towards a potential particle collider to extend the current knowledge about the fundamental building blocks and forces of the Universe. If the project goes ahead, it will be the most powerful and efficient particle collider ever built.

The researchers accounted for a broad range of socio-economic factors in their work: including respondents’ societal and economic context, level of education, gender, and media use patterns. Altogether, the study found that public support for such a project was high, with 66% of participants indicating they would be willing for their countries to support the RI financially with their taxes. Yet the focus of the study’s further investigations were the 34% of respondents who reported no willingness to pay for the project.

The team identified four distinct subgroups of opponents. In the first subgroup, respondents reported that their economic situation would prevent them to support the project financially. In the second, they expressed a preference to use the money for purposes other than research. The third group expressed a preference for funding different areas of scientific research: including those with more directly observable outcomes, such as medical research; and those addressing more urgent challenges, such as climate change.

According to the authors, most of the participants in these three groups didn’t express any significant anti-science attitudes, or ideological positions. Yet in a fourth subgroup, which the researchers named ‘protest’ respondents, these sentiments dominated.

Among the 18% of respondents unwilling to financially support a new CERN particle collider, the researchers found a more deeply rooted distrust against government-funded programmes and international organisations, with some participants expressing that only people who directly benefited from CERN’s research should pay for it. Altogether, this subgroup encompassed more profound anti-science sentiments – rooted in a mistrust in authority and ideological leanings, including the perception of science as a whole being an elitist field.

The results may help scientists and policymakers better understand how to address anti-science sentiments against large-scale publicly funded science missions. By intensifying participation and engagement of the public and discussing how research infrastructures can generate benefits of public interest, future science projects could ultimately build perception and legitimacy into their designs.