Investigating interest and knowledge as predictors of students' attitudes towards socio-scientific issues

• Topic knowledge predicted attitudes towards nuclear power plants.
• Topic interest predicted attitudes towards human-induced climate change.
• The relationship between interest and attitudes depended on topic knowledge.
• The nature of this interaction differed between the two issues.

The present study investigated the extent to which topic interest and topic knowledge, independently and interactively, predicted attitudes towards two socio-scientific issues: the potential risk associated with nuclear power plants and human-induced climate change. In a sample of 153 Norwegian upper-secondary school students, topic knowledge was found to be a better predictor of attitudes towards nuclear power plants than was topic interest, whereas topic interest was found to be a better predictor of attitudes towards climate change than was topic knowledge. Thus, more knowledgeable students seemed less likely to be concerned about the potential risk of nuclear power plants than were less knowledgeable students, and more interested and engaged students seemed more likely to judge climate change to be human-induced than were less interested students. Moreover, for both issues, students' interest in the topic and their topic knowledge interacted, with the relationship between interest and attitude depending on students' level of topic knowledge. This interaction differed between the two issues, with a stronger relationship between interest and attitudes observed at lower than at higher levels of knowledge for the nuclear power issue and a stronger relationship between interest and attitudes observed at higher than at lower levels of knowledge for the climate change issue. Theoretical and educational implications of the findings are discussed.