Utilizing a psychological network approach to improve insights into science attitudes

Positive public attitudes towards science are of pivotal importance in combating societal and environmental challenges. To better understand these attitudes, an integration of different research lines is needed. We argue that adopting a psychological network approach presents one viable way towards such integration. In this paper, we present a brief summary of the field's current research lines, explain the psychological network approach towards attitudes and how it can improve our understanding of science attitudes, and finally present an empirical case study to exemplify this network approach and its added value. Adopting the psychological network approach will improve our understanding of science attitudes, which will help inform theory as well as strategies for improving public attitudes towards science.