What's next for the psychology of science rejection?

The last decade has seen a surge in research on science attitudes, trust in science, and science rejection. As a result, our understanding of the psychology of science rejection has substantially improved. This is important, because science rejection is a pernicious problem that can obstruct potential solutions to various pressing societal and environmental challenges. At the same time, this field of inquiry is limited in—at least—two important ways. First, much of the work conducted is descriptive in nature and not sufficiently guided by theory. Second, research has largely and disproportionately focused on a limited range of science domains, resulting in narrow and/or fuzzy conceptualizations and operationalizations of ‘science’. In this article, we argue that for the field to move forward it needs to pay more attention to theory and validity.