Motivation is key to the public’s trust in science, study reveals
Social scientists Shumaila Bhatti and Dara Wald are our podcast guests The post Motivation is key to the public’s trust in science, study reveals appeared first on Physics World .
The Physics World Weekly podcast, featuring social scientists Shumaila Bhatti and Dara Wald from Virginia Tech, has uncovered a crucial insight into the public's trust in science. Their extensive study of nearly 1,000 US subjects reveals that a scientist's perceived motivation plays a pivotal role in how credible they appear to the general public. The researchers identified five distinct audience classes with varying perceptions of scientific credibility.
Interestingly, despite differences among these classes, there is a common preference among all groups for scientists to be honest and motivated by the public good. While people across all classes do not typically doubt the expertise of scientists, they do expect a genuine commitment to serving society. The study's findings are detailed in the paper titled "There is not one public: divergent perceptions of scientists’ source credibility in the United States".
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