About
27
Publications
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Introduction
I am a science communication researcher with foundation in epistemic cognition research.
My research interests are people's trust in- and knowledge of and about science (scientific literacy), and how both play into their evaluation of scientific (online) information.
I am also interested in researchers' perspectives on science communication and outreach, and developing science communication training for early career researchers.
Current institution
Additional affiliations
April 2021 - July 2021
October 2012 - March 2016
Position
- PhD
Description
- PhD project in the interdisciplinary DFG funded research training group "Trust and Communication in a Digitized World". Advisors: Prof. Rainer Bromme, Prof. Bernd Blöbaum, Dr. Dorothe Kienhues
March 2017 - March 2021
Education
October 2006 - September 2012
Publications
Publications (27)
To guide their professional practice, (pre-service) teachers consider information from a variety of sources. One prerequisite for source preference is the extent to which a source is considered as expert, integer, and benevolent (i.e., its ascribed epistemic trustworthiness). Recent research indicates that pre-service teachers ascribe more expertis...
In methodological and practical debates about replications in science, it is (often implicitly) assumed that replications will affect public trust in science. In this preregistered experiment (N = 484), we varied (a) whether a replication attempt was successful or not and (b) whether the replication was authored by the same, or another lab. Results...
Background
Evaluating scientific information has become challenging due to information complexity and the loss of gatekeepers, especially online (McGrew et al., 2018). A common strategy to improve nonexperts understanding of scientific information is to avoid jargon. This, however might cause recipients to overestimate their understanding of the su...
Outreach activities might facilitate researchers’ boundary crossing not only between science and society but also between disciplines. This offers opportunities for learning and reflection on the individual and the organizational level. We questioned N = 75 researchers of two interdisciplinary research programs. Researchers reported positive effect...
Trust in science is both a goal and prerequisite for science communication. While participatory methods are claimed to build this trust, supporting evidence remains limited. In an online experiment (N = 725), we investigated how different levels of participation in designing an article impact message credibility, trustworthiness, and trust intentio...
Trust in science is both a goal and prerequisite for science communication. While participatory methods are claimed to build this trust, supporting evidence remains limited. In an online experiment ( N = 725), we investigated how different levels of participation in designing an article impact message credibility, trustworthiness, and trust intenti...
Introduction: In times of crisis like COVID-19, science communication is a means to provide orientation to the public. Science communication places high demands on the capabilities of those who conduct it, and, thus, interventions should be developed and evaluated for their effectiveness. Aim: This paper introduces an intervention to support scienc...
Eine aktuelle Lehrkräftebildung in den Naturwissenschaften muss sich den globalen Herausforderungen stellen, um die angehenden Lehrkräfte der Biologie, Chemie und Physik auch dazu zu befähigen, ihre zukünftigen Schülerinnen und Schüler auf die Probleme von morgen vorzubereiten. Bildung für nachhaltige Entwicklung, 21st century skills und der Umgang...
https://transferunit.de/thema/wie-koennen-wissenschaftlerinnen-zu-wissenschaftskommunikation-motiviert-und-befaehigt-werden/
Hendriks, F., Banse, L., & Fick, J. (2023). Wie können Wissenschaftler*innen dazu motiviert und befähigt werden, im Bereich Wissenschaftskommunikation aktiv zu werden? — Ein Forschungsüberblick. Berlin: Transfer Unit Wissen...
Public and private decision-making on health problems relies on scientific evidence. However, scientific knowledge includes uncertainty, as does knowledge about COVID-19. In an experimental study, we tested how the trustworthiness (on the three dimensions expertise, integrity, and benevolence) of a source of information (either a scientist or a pol...
The chapter provides a conceptual clarification of the concept 'public trust in science'. Our starting point is the model of trust formulated by Mayer, Davis, and Schoormann (1995), which has been widely used in trust research since then. Here, it is now specified for the context of citizens' encounter with science, by using the example of the COVI...
Scientists (and science as a whole) provide evidence and advice for societal problem solving and collective decision-making. For this advice to be heard, the public must be willing to trust science, where “trust” means that one can confidently expect science to provide reliable knowledge and evidence, even if one’s understanding of science is bound...
Scientific knowledge is intrinsically uncertain; hence, it can only provide a tentative orientation for political decisions. One illustrative example is the discussion that has taken place on introducing mandatory mask-wearing to contain the coronavirus. In this context, this study investigates how the communication of uncertainty regarding the eff...
The occurrence of COVID-19 has a strong impact on individuals’ as well as public life. This Special Issue brings together research on language and communication addressing the challenges resulting from the Corona virus situation. Seven original papers followed by a discussion, address research on language and communication related to COVID-19 using...
Trust plays a pivotal role in many different contexts and thus has been investigated by researchers in a variety of disciplines. In this chapter, we provide a comprehensive overview of methodological approaches to investigating trust and its antecedents. We explain how quantitative methods may be used to measure expectations about a trustee or inst...
Psychological misconceptions can be a threat for reaching educational goals and should consequently be prevented. In this study, we analyzed different methods to combat psychological misconceptions: We contrasted a standard lecture with a refutation lecture, and tested the effects of a short intervention educating about cognitive biases and imparti...
Many urgent problems that societies currently face—from climate change to a global pandemic—require citizens to engage with scientific information as members of democratic societies as well as to solve problems in their personal lives. Most often, to solve their epistemic aims (aims directed at achieving knowledge and understanding) regarding such...
published in Media and Communication.
Even though a main goal of science is to reduce the uncertainty in scientific results by applying ever-improving research methods, epistemic uncertainty is an integral part of science. As such, while uncertainty might be communicated in news articles about climate science, climate skeptics have also exploited...
In this article, we describe how laypeople are able to engage with science and scientific issues in spite of their bounded understanding (limited relevant back- ground knowledge about science and about how science works). Drawing on psycho- logical and related research, we describe that laypeople engage with science and sci- entific issues, either...
The paper summarizes the four contributions to a panel on scientific uncertainty in the mass media, looking on how the media deal with uncertainty, what it means for the audience, and how to improve media coverage of scientific uncertainty.
Laypeople need to trust experts, because they lack sufficient background knowledge to handle scientific evidence. This study investigates if a science blogger’s expertise, integrity, and benevolence are affected by an admission of a study’s flaw in contrast to a critique by another scientist. Results (N = 90) showed that ascriptions of expertise we...
The experimental studies presented here investigated whether discussing ethical implications of preliminary scientific results in a science blog would impact blog readers’ perception of the responsible scientist blogger’s epistemic trustworthiness (on the dimensions expertise, integrity, and benevolence). They also investigated whether it made a di...
When risky technologies are debated in the media or when cases of scientific misconduct are made public, inevitable discussions arise about public loss of trust in science. However, trust in science reaches far beyond such incidents: trust is of much more fundamental importance for science. Clearly, trust is pivotal in doing science, since research...
Given their lack of background knowledge, laypeople require expert help when dealing with scientific information. To decide whose help is dependable, laypeople must judge an expert's epistemic trustworthiness in terms of competence, adherence to scientific standards, and good intentions. Online, this may be difficult due to the often limited and so...
