Science can work on cancer in a lab. Climate requires everyone to change.
En España, la confianza en la ciencia no es uniforme: se concentra con intensidad en el cuerpo humano y se diluye cuando el problema trasciende el laboratorio para volverse colectivo, político o moral. Una encuesta de la Fundación BBVA a más de cuatro mil personas revela que el 88% cree que la ciencia curará el cáncer antes de 2050, pero solo el 28% confía en que pueda reducir la pobreza. Esta distinción no es un capricho estadístico, sino una ventana a cómo las sociedades modernas separan lo que consideran resoluble de lo que intuyen como irreductiblemente humano.
- La fe en la biomedicina roza lo absoluto: casi nueve de cada diez españoles esperan que el cáncer y las enfermedades infecciosas sean derrotados antes de mediados de siglo.
- Esa certeza se fractura en cuanto el problema abandona el cuerpo individual: el cambio climático convence solo al 46% y la reducción de la pobreza, apenas al 28%.
- La encuesta expone también una jerarquía interna del conocimiento: los españoles consideran más 'científicas' la medicina y la física que la sociología o la economía, reflejando una desconfianza cultural hacia las ciencias que estudian el comportamiento colectivo.
- La brecha entre apreciación abstracta y confianza concreta es reveladora: la ciencia recibe un 8,5 sobre 10 por su aporte a la salud, pero solo un 5,7 cuando se le pregunta si resolverá los grandes problemas del siglo XXI.
- En el debate sobre financiación, el pragmatismo se impone: el 57% prefiere que el dinero público vaya a investigación aplicada, mientras que apenas el 23% defiende la ciencia básica movida por la curiosidad.
Una encuesta de la Fundación BBVA a más de cuatro mil españoles dibuja un mapa de confianza científica con una geografía precisa: cuanto más cerca está el problema del cuerpo humano, mayor es la fe en que la ciencia lo resolverá. El 88% cree que el cáncer tendrá cura antes de 2050; el 89% espera la eliminación de las enfermedades infecciosas; el 82% confía en que la modificación genética erradicará las dolencias hereditarias graves.
Pero esa certeza se desvanece cuando el desafío es colectivo. Solo el 46% cree que la ciencia logrará frenar el cambio climático, y apenas el 28% piensa que puede reducir la pobreza. El patrón es coherente: los españoles confían en la ciencia cuando opera sobre el individuo, y dudan de ella cuando el problema depende de decisiones humanas, estructuras sociales o voluntad política.
El estudio también revela cómo los españoles ordenan el conocimiento internamente. La mayoría distingue la ciencia legítima de la pseudociencia —rechazando la homeopatía, la acupuntura y la quiropráctica— pero dentro de la ciencia real, sitúan la medicina, la química y la biología por encima de la sociología, la economía o la historia. La dureza metodológica parece equivaler, en la percepción popular, a fiabilidad.
En conjunto, el 62% cree que la ciencia acabará explicando la mayor parte de las cosas importantes del mundo, aunque esa convicción varía según la ideología política y el nivel educativo: quienes tienen más formación y posiciones de izquierda muestran mayor confianza. Los españoles valoran la contribución de la ciencia a la salud con un 8,5 sobre 10, pero cuando se les pregunta si resolverá los grandes problemas del siglo, la nota cae a 5,7.
Sobre el futuro especulativo, las opiniones se fragmentan. El 78% cree que existirán máquinas inteligentes sin supervisión humana, pero solo la mitad teme que reemplacen a las personas. En cuanto a la gobernanza científica, el 57% prefiere que la investigación pública se oriente a problemas prácticos, y el 44% quiere que sean los propios científicos quienes tomen las decisiones, aunque con cierta rendición de cuentas ante la sociedad.
A survey of more than four thousand Spaniards reveals a population that places extraordinary faith in science's ability to solve medical problems—but grows skeptical the moment the challenge moves beyond the laboratory and into the world.
Eighty-eight percent of respondents believe science will cure cancer before 2050. Nearly as many, eighty-nine percent, expect infectious diseases to be eliminated. Eighty-two percent think genetic modification will one day remove the traits that cause serious illness. These numbers reflect a deep, almost unshakeable confidence in the power of medicine and biology to remake human health.
But ask those same Spaniards whether science can slow climate change, and the certainty evaporates. Only forty-six percent believe it will happen. Ask whether science can reduce poverty, and the figure drops to twenty-eight percent. The pattern is unmistakable: Spaniards trust science most when it operates in the realm of the individual body, and trust it far less when the problem is collective, systemic, or rooted in human behavior and choice.
The findings come from the BBVA Foundation's latest study on scientific culture in Spain, based on responses from 4,056 people. The research probes not just what Spaniards believe science can do, but how they think about science itself. Most respondents can distinguish legitimate science from pseudoscience—they correctly reject homeopathy, acupuncture, and chiropractic as unscientific. Yet within the category of real science, they rank the life sciences—medicine, chemistry, physics, biology—as more genuinely scientific than the social sciences like sociology, economics, or history. The hierarchy reflects a broader cultural intuition: the harder the science, the more trustworthy it seems.
Overall, sixty-two percent of Spaniards believe science will eventually explain most of the important things about the world. That confidence correlates sharply with political ideology; those on the right express more reservations about science's ultimate reach. Those with more education and left-leaning views tend to hold fewer doubts. The more someone knows about science, the survey suggests, the more they believe in its power.
When asked directly about science's benefits, Spaniards are generous. They rate science's contribution to human health at 8.5 out of 10. Its impact on quality of life scores 8.4. Its benefit to society overall receives 8.1. Yet when the question shifts to whether science can solve the major problems of the twenty-first century, the average score drops to 5.7—a telling gap between abstract appreciation and concrete confidence.
On more speculative frontiers, opinion fragments. Seventy-eight percent think intelligent machines will be built that operate without human supervision, but only half believe those machines will eventually replace people. Sixty percent think science might one day allow parents to design their children's physical traits at birth, and the same proportion believe human life could be created in a laboratory. But only fifty-five percent think lifespans can be extended by twenty years beyond current averages, and just twenty-six percent believe science will ever allow us to custom-design intelligence and personality before birth.
When it comes to how science should be funded and governed, Spaniards show pragmatic preferences. Fifty-seven percent want public money spent on research that solves practical problems, while only twenty-three percent prioritize basic research pursued for its own sake and for human curiosity. On governance, forty-four percent think scientists should control research decisions, thirty-seven percent believe society should have a say, and fifteen percent think the state should decide. The responses suggest a public that wants science to serve concrete needs, guided by those who understand it best, but accountable to the broader population it serves.
Notable Quotes
Spaniards rate science's contribution to human health at 8.5 out of 10, but score its ability to solve major twenty-first-century problems at only 5.7— BBVA Foundation survey findings
The Hearth Conversation Another angle on the story
Why do you think Spaniards have such high confidence in cancer research but so much doubt about climate change?
Because one feels like a problem medicine can solve—a disease to cure—while the other feels like a problem that requires everyone to change how they live. Science can work on cancer in a lab. Climate requires politics, behavior, sacrifice.
So it's not really about faith in science at all?
It's faith in science to do what science does best: isolate a problem and fix it. When the problem is tangled up in human choice and social systems, that confidence frays.
The survey shows people on the right are more skeptical of science's power. What's that about?
It might be that skepticism about science's reach correlates with skepticism about centralized solutions in general. If you don't trust big institutions to solve problems, you're less likely to believe science—as an institution—will either.
And the gap between how much people value science and how much they think it can solve our biggest problems—that's significant, isn't it?
Very. People love science. They think it makes life better. But they're not naive. They sense that some problems aren't scientific problems at all. They're human problems.
What does it mean that people want public funding for practical research over basic research?
It means they want to see a return. They're not wrong to want that. But it also suggests they might not understand that the most transformative discoveries often come from curiosity-driven work with no immediate application.