Abstract: Scientific populism is a new form of populist thought and movement that has emerged globally in recent years, especially in Western countries. The so-called “scientific populism” refers to a kind of discourse and practice of resistance formed by the general public against scientific elites in the process of scientific knowledge production and dissemination. Scientific populism is a new expansion of the masses—elites confrontation logic in the field of science. When populists shift the object of their rebellion to science, then scientific populism with the remarkable features of anti-science, anti-intellectualism and anti-rationality emerges. Actually, the inadequate science popularization work of the scientific community, the scientific knowledge and events that have a direct negative impact on the public, and the openness of the concept of populism have jointly contributed to the formation of scientific populism. As a new form of populism with two sides, scientific populism not only brings many negative effects to the two major fields of science and politics, but also objectively forces the scientific community to take corresponding reform measures. From the current and future point of view, countries, societies and people around the world should be vigilant against the trend of thought and movement of scientific populism.