Abstract
Due to the rise of the Internet, the effects of different science communication formats in which experts appear cannot be neglected in communication research. Through their emotional and more comprehensible communication ‘sciencetubers’—who frequently differ from the stereotypical image of scientists as white, old men—may have a considerable effect on the public’s perceived trustworthiness of scientists as well as their trust in science. Thus, this study aims to extend trust and trustworthiness research to consider the role of emotion in science communication in the context of emerging online video content. Therefore, perceived trustworthiness was examined in an experimental online survey of 155 people aged 18–80. We considered different potential influencing variables for trustworthiness (expertise, integrity, benevolence) and used six different video stimuli about physics featuring scientific experts. The video stimuli varied according to format (TV interviews vs. YouTube videos), gender (male vs. female), and age of the experts depicted (old vs. young). The results suggest that: (1) Scientific experts appearing in TV interviews are perceived as more competent but not higher in integrity or benevolence than sciencetubers—while scientists interviewed on TV are regarded as typical scientists, sciencetubers stand out for their highly professional communication abilities (being entertaining and comprehensible); (2) these emotional assessments of scientists are important predictors of perceived trustworthiness; and (3) significantly mediate the effect of the stimulus (TV interview vs. YouTube video) on all dimensions of perceived trustworthiness of scientific experts.
Highlights
Scientific topics are often very complex and difficult to grasp, for non-experts
We present results from an experimental online survey (n = 155) comparing perceptions of scientific experts appearing in classical TV interview settings with sciencetubers
The goal of this study was to extend trust and trustworthiness research in the field of science communication to consider the emotional assessments of scientific experts in emerging online video content
Summary
Scientific topics are often very complex and difficult to grasp, for non-experts. Scientific findings form the basis for many everyday life decisions which is why the public require a certain degree of trust in science and the work of scientists. This is especially true nowadays, given that the public has the ability to immediately access information at any time from a wide variety of sources. The. Internet has a great deal to offer non-experts who wish to inform themselves on a topic. The Internet thereby helps to make science more accessible and enables the public to engage with science or even publish their own content about science. Correctly evaluating an alleged expert and their trustworthiness becomes more challenging (Hendriks, Kienhues, & Bromme, 2015), as “[d]ifferent levels of expertise, qual-
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