Abstract
There is scant research-based evidence regarding what the public is interested in knowing about science, and more knowledge is needed to tailor relevant and engaging formal and free-choice science environments for different publics. This methodological paper describes the potential and limitations of three existing web-based tools - Google Trends, Google Zeitgeist, and Google Insights for Search - for PUS research. It shows how these tools can be used to (1) identify interests in science and pseudoscience, (2) conduct a cross-national comparison of popular science and pseudoscience-related searches and (3) discover possible motivations when searching for specific terms. Trends identified using analyses of online queries are discussed. These provide a bottom-up assessment of PUS, and may add another argument to the controversy regarding quantitative measures and the deficit model.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 130-143 |
| Number of pages | 14 |
| Journal | Public Understanding of Science |
| Volume | 20 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Jan 2011 |
Keywords
- data mining
- international comparisons
- pseudoscience
- public interest in science
- search queries
All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes
- Communication
- Developmental and Educational Psychology
- Arts and Humanities (miscellaneous)