The Maltese are considerably more likely than their European counterparts to believe that people's actions and behaviour - as well as technological innovation - will bring about a better future, a survey by the European Commission has shown.
The Eurobarometer survey on "public perceptions of science, research and innovation" focused mainly on what people felt that the future would bring.
Respondents were asked to state what the main priorities of science and technological innovation should be over the next 15 years, and were asked to choose from 13 areas including job creation, education, health and environmental protection. Respondents were also asked to state how they felt people's actions and behaviour, as well as science and technological innovation, would impact each area over the next 15 years.
In every category - often by a considerable margin - a greater proportion of Maltese respondents said that human behaviour and technology would have a positive impact. In no area did a majority of European citizens state that people's actions and behaviour would leave a positive impact, but an absolute majority of Maltese felt it would in 11 of 13 cases.
The survey shows within the EU, health and job creation are seen to be the main priorities for science and innovation over the next 15 years.
Job creation is seen as the first priority in sixteen member states: Malta is one of the ten whose people believe that health and medical care is a greater priority. Two Scandinavian countries - Sweden and Denmark - were the exception to the rule: the fight against climate change was considered to be the first priority in both.
Over a third (35%) of Maltese respondents believed that health should be the main priority - the highest proportion in the EU, where an average of 20% prioritised the topic.
The Maltese were also the most likely to expect that people's actions and behaviour will have a positive impact on health in the next 15 years: 72% did so, far above the 43% EU average. 76% of Maltese also believed technology would have a positive impact.
Job creation was the second-most important priority to the Maltese: it was mentioned as the first priority by 18% of them, compared to a 20% EU average.
In this case, the Maltese were also optimistic about the future. A total 57% believed people's actions would help, whereas 60% said technology would: in both cases, the EU average was 15 percentage points lower.
The third priority for technological innovation, according to the Maltese, should be education and skills, chosen by 10% of respondents.
73% felt that people's behaviour would leave a positive impact over the next 15 year - just 48% of Europeans felt the same - while 77% expected education to benefit from technological innovation.
A total of 7% of Maltese believed that the top research priority should be environmental protection, and an equal proportion chose the related subject of combating climate change.
Energy supply was also picked by 7% of Maltese respondents, while 67% of them - the largest proportion anywhere in the EU - said that human behaviour would have a positive impact on energy supply in the next 15 years.
What the Maltese were the least optimistic about - as far as human behaviour was concerned - was the adaptation of society to an ageing population. Only 44% believed that people's actions and behaviour would have a positive impact, although this proportion is still higher than the 34% EU average.
Only 49% of Maltese believed that people's actions and behaviour would help bring about a reduction in inequalities, and only 45% believed technology would do so. But these results are still considerably higher than the EU average: in each case, more positive results were only reported in three other member states.