CAREER: Assessing the effect of source credibility on public perceptions of science and place-based conservation

当科学家被认为是在为公众的最佳利益行事时，公众对科学影响政策的支持就会增加。然而，大多数美国成年人对科学家的善意（例如，对公共利益的承诺）持怀疑态度。商誉是信息源可信度的一个关键维度，是公众用来解释科学发现和建议的捷径。尽管善意发挥着关键作用，但目前人们对善意如何在个人和群体之间产生、变化和争论，以激励（或不激励）基于证据的行动知之甚少。本项目将通过确定感知技术科学来源商誉的关键驱动因素，并确定技术科学商誉和沟通何时以及如何影响农业土地经营者（即农民、林农、牧场主）对环境信息的反应来解决这一差距。研究结果将鼓励鼓励以证据为基础的土地管理的努力，以减轻陆地上的气候排放，并最大限度地发挥保护科学对人类和环境的好处。拟议的职业发展项目将确定一个改进的循证模型，以确定影响公众对技术科学来源可信度的看法的因素，并进一步努力衡量、测试和利用善意作为促进有效公众沟通的手段。本研究使用潜在语义分析和混合方法内容分析来识别和比较农用地经营者和TS来源可信度心理模型的社会文化信仰。一项在线信息实验将用于测试商誉信号和套期保值对TS来源可信度和对农业土地保护实践支持的看法的影响。此外，该CAREER项目将研究、教学与新型教育课程的开发和评估相结合，使农业社区参与其中，使自然资源专业人员能够表达善意，并认识到文化现实，从而对基于证据的信息做出反应。因此，该项目将为改进科学传播培训、更有效和基于证据的环境信息传递，以及增强农业社区与TS来源之间的善意提供基础。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Public support for scientific influence on policy increases when scientists are perceived as acting in the public’s best interests. Yet most U.S. adults are skeptical of scientists’ goodwill (e.g., commitment to public good). Goodwill is a key dimension of source credibility, a shortcut used by the public to interpret scientific findings and recommendations. Despite its key role, little is currently known about how goodwill emerges, varies and is contested across individuals and groups to motivate (or not) evidence-based action. This project will address this gap by identifying the key drivers of perceived technoscientific (TS) source goodwill and determining when and how technoscientific goodwill and communication shape responses to environmental messages among agricultural land operators (i.e., farmers, foresters, ranchers). Research findings will encourage efforts to incentivize evidence-based land stewardship that mitigates land-based climate emissions and maximizes the benefits of conservation science for people and the environment. The proposed CAREER project will identify an improved evidence-based model of the factors shaping public perceptions of technoscientific (TA) source credibility and further efforts to measure, test, and employ goodwill as a means of promoting effective public communication. This research uses latent semantic analysis and mixed-methods content analysis to identify and compare the socio-cultural beliefs undergirding agricultural land operators and TS sources’ mental models of source credibility. An online message experiment will be used to test the effects of goodwill signals and hedging on perceptions of TS source credibility and support for conservation practices on agricultural lands. Furthermore, this CAREER project integrates research and teaching with the development and evaluation of a novel educational curriculum that engages agricultural communities and prepares natural resource professionals to signal goodwill and recognize the cultural realities informing responses to evidence-based messages. As such, this project will provide a foundation for improved science communication training, more effective and evidence-based environmental messaging, and enhanced goodwill between agricultural communities and TS sources.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.