Science and the crisis of trust

Science today operates in an environment increasingly described as a crisis of trust, where confidence in institutions has eroded and consensus over truth is fragmented. While still among the most trusted actors, science faces pressing trust-related challenges: populist rhetoric can frame scientists as part of a detached elite, polarized debates fuel delegitimizing narratives, scientific knowledge is increasingly presented as another opinion and therewith competing against direct experiences and gut feelings, and news media dynamics can intensify a spiral of negativity in which scandals and threat-oriented framings overshadow science's constructive role. These dynamics undermine science's epistemic authority and risk fueling disengagement from knowledge altogether. We caution against the rise of epistemic indifference, where individuals lose motivation to seek, evaluate, or trust knowledge, and highlight the need to safeguard the legitimacy of science in an era of pervasive skepticism.