Two sides of the same coin: Public trust in science and scientists‘ trust in the public

同一枚硬币的两面：公众对科学的信任和科学家对公众的信任

• 批准号: 458648062
• 负责人: Professor Dr. Matthias Kohring
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: Institut für Sozialwissenschaften
• 依托单位国家: 德国
• 项目类别: Research Grants
• 资助国家: 德国
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gepris.dfg.de/gepris/projekt/458648062?language=en
• 关键词: Two; sides; same; coin; Public

In exceptional situations like the Covid 19 pandemic it becomes clear that Western societies are increasingly dealing with a transition from a self-evident acceptance of science to a perception of science as risk. Since political decisions based on scientific research and advice from scientists have met with criticism and, in part, social resistance, science has also been drawn into these conflicts. But when the scientific expertise itself is at stake, the focus of public debates switches from knowledge itself to the trustworthiness of the knowledge producers. Against this background, the Public Engagement (PE) with science plays a crucial role in building and maintaining trust. If, due to negative experiences with the media and public debates, scientists were to lose trust in the rationality of public communication and refrain from public engagement, an important resource for public trust in science would be lost.Public trust in science thus appears as a coin with two sides: One side is the perspective of the public realizing the risk to rely on (preliminary) scientific results in times of high uncertainty, therefore looking for indicators to base their trust on. The other side is the perspective of the scientists who might question the rationality of public discussion processes regarding them as risky for their reputation and even for their safety. The project presented here— which is as a joint endeavor together with Prof. Martin Bauer from the LSE, London —therefore aims to shed light on both per-spectives at the same time.The goal of the first subproject is to understand and to model the architecture of public trust in science, consisting of risk perceptions, expectations of trust, reasons for trust and consequences of trust—or distrust, with a special focus on the perception of the communication behavior of scientists. The program follows a mixed-methods approach by combining a detailed exploratory phase with the development and application of a standardized survey instrument. The second subproject focus on scientists’ perception of the public role of science during the first phase of the Covid 19 pandemic in 2020. The aim is to clarify how these experiences may have changed the attitude of scientists towards dialogue with the public, the media and interest groups, and what kind of communication behavior results from this. The program combines a standardized survey of scientists with a series of guideline surveys with particularly visible and largely invisible scientists.The synthesis of both subprojects allows a comprehensive stocktaking of the mutual trust relation between science and the public. Our goal is to derive recommendations from this comprehensive analysis that can guide science communication and in particular the communication behavior of scientists beyond the Covid 19 pandemic in order to stabilize and improve the relationship of trust between science and the public.

在Covid - 19大流行等特殊情况下，很明显，西方社会正日益面临从不言而喻的科学接受到将科学视为风险的转变。由于基于科学研究和科学家建议的政治决策遭到了批评，在某种程度上还遭到了社会的抵制，科学也被卷入了这些冲突。但是，当科学专业知识本身受到威胁时，公众辩论的焦点就会从知识本身转向知识生产者的可信度。在这种背景下，公众参与科学在建立和维护信任方面发挥着至关重要的作用。如果由于与媒体和公众辩论的负面经历，科学家对公共沟通的合理性失去信任，而不愿参与公众活动，那么公众对科学的信任就会失去一个重要的资源。因此，公众对科学的信任就像一个有两面的硬币：一面是公众意识到在高度不确定的时期依赖（初步）科学结果的风险，因此寻找建立信任的指标。另一方面是科学家的观点，他们可能会质疑公众讨论过程的合理性，认为这对他们的声誉甚至安全构成了威胁。这里展示的项目是与伦敦政治经济学院的Martin Bauer教授共同努力的结果，旨在同时阐明这两个观点。第一个子项目的目标是理解和模拟公众对科学的信任架构，包括风险感知、信任期望、信任的原因和信任或不信任的后果，特别关注对科学家沟通行为的感知。该计划采用混合方法，将详细的探索阶段与标准化测量仪器的开发和应用相结合。第二个子项目侧重于科学家对2020年Covid - 19大流行第一阶段科学的公共作用的看法。其目的是阐明这些经历可能如何改变了科学家对与公众、媒体和利益集团对话的态度，以及由此产生了什么样的传播行为。该项目将科学家的标准化调查与一系列指导性调查相结合，调查对象包括一些特别显眼的科学家和大部分不显眼的科学家。这两个子项目的综合允许对科学与公众之间的相互信任关系进行全面的评估。我们的目标是从这一综合分析中得出建议，指导科学传播，特别是科学家的传播行为，以稳定和改善科学与公众之间的信任关系。