Reading about science in the era of “fake news”: how the requester, the task, attitudes towards and knowledge about science influence reading decisions and outcomes

• Applicant: Dr. Cornelia Schoor
• Subject Area: Developmental and Educational Psychology ; General and Domain-Specific Teaching and Learning
• Term: from 2019 to 2022
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 418429075

Scientific results are easily available through mass media and the internet. Recent developments like "alternative Facts" and "fake News", however, are an example of the fact that at least a certain percentage of the public considers the established media to be untrustworthy and/or do not value the scientific approach and scientific results when reaching important personal or political decisions. In the present project, this topic is addressed from a reading research perspective through the examination of university students. Scientific results on the same topic are often available across multiple documents. University students encounter these not only in the personal context, but also in the academic context. Reading multiple documents necessitates, amongst other tasks, the comparison of statements, making judgements regarding the trustworthiness of sources, and creating an adequate representation of content and its sources. Based on the recently proposed RESOLV model, the present project poses the question of whether the context in which the students read influences their reading decisions and outcome. In an academic context, the students can assume that the requester (e.g., the professor) expects them to integrate and attend to the different perspectives when reading multiple documents. In contrast, there are often no such clear expectations in the personal context (e.g. the requester is a friend or relative). Therefore, it is assumed in the present project that attitudes towards science play a role when making reading decisions: In the case of positive attitudes, it is probable that students would choose an approach similar to one they would use in an academic context. In the case of negative attitudes, they would most probably choose a different approach, such as focusing more on personal experience than on scientific expertise. Since in different contexts it is often not only the requester who varies, but also the task, in the present project the influence of the requester, the task, attitudes towards science, and knowledge about the scientific approach will be researched. Since the assessment of attitudes towards science, especially in the case of university students, might evoke biased self-report measures due to social desirability or self-deception, not only explicit but also implicit measures will be used. Study 1 focuses on the relationships of explicit and implicit attitudes towards science and knowledge about the scientific approach. In Study 2, the context effects by task, requester, and as moderators attitudes towards science and knowledge about the scientific approach will be researched. It is expected that the results will contribute to both the understanding of current phenomena as well as to theory advancement.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants