String theory is widely respected by people who actually understand it. Believed in? Not sure, but a lot of experimental physicists who mock it clearly are just

String theory is widely respected by people who actually understand it. Believed in? Not sure, but a lot of experimental physicists who mock it clearly are just following memes in their departments - which does not necessarily make them wrong. Almost by definition people who are mildly interested in string theory don't talk about it unless asked. String theory has the potential to work, and doesn't involve as much parameter-hacking as other models, whereas its main competitors don't even work "in theory". It's also worth saying that a lot of "string theorists" are actually working on consequences of things like holography rather than banging their head against a book trying to work on the very essence of the theory.