The study, published in Public Understanding of Science, looked at different search results from 30 basic scientific terms in English, Hebrew and Arabic. It found that search results for terms in English are of better quality than the equivalent searches in Hebrew or Arabic.
The differences in results were found in the pedagogical aspects of quality, or the extent to which the content was geared to younger users, instead of the accuracy of the content itself.
The greatest differences between languages were found for terms related to nutrition, such as "carbohydrate" or "metabolism." The criteria that searches were judged on included content accuracy, author's authority and use of sources.
The study was conducted by Kawther Zoubi as part of her master’s degree thesis.
"These findings help us understand the digital divide and the social factors that affect our ability to develop science literacy. Our understanding of science depends on the environment we live in and the extent to which we have access to quality scientific information. This depends on our proficiency in different languages," explained Zoubi.
Prof. Ayelet Baram-Tsabari, who oversaw the study, added, "The scientific and educational communities must act to mitigate the digital divide. We all have the right to access quality scientific information in our language."