SPP 1409:  Science and the General Public: Understanding Fragile and Conflicting Evidence

• Subject Area: Social and Behavioural Sciences ; Biology ; Humanities ; Medicine
• Term: from 2009 to 2019
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 73397437

The Priority Programme examines conditions and processes of the public’s (i.e. laypersons’) basic understanding of how scientific evidence is acquired and ensured. Such a basic understanding also includes an efficient handling of laypersons’ (by definition) limited understanding. The research conducted within the Priority Programme covers the come about of offers of scientific information as well as their cognitive, emotional and communicative processing through laypersons. The intent of the research projects is, amongst others, the empirical analysis of conditions and processes of laypersons’ scientific understanding. On the one hand, the projects refer to the academic skills and foundations of scientific understanding; on the other hand, they focus on the understanding and communication of science-related information found online or in traditional mass media (print media, TV etc.).
Furthermore, several projects examine the effects of media-based editing of scientific results. Even traditional kinds of media offer information about scientific evidence assurance that is heterogeneous in terms of content and editing. Additionally, one can find information online, which requires the user to employ a variety of active searching- and evaluation-activities. Apart from this, scientific information is provided by initiatives of science organisations or citizens who are interested in specific topics.
The goal of the Priority Programme’s projects is to find starting-points for the improvement of a sufficient understanding of science through the examination of empirically and theoretically founded principles related to the insemination of scientific information. Improving scientific understanding can both involve informal settings (e.g. via individual practice of internet-research or in museums) and formal settings (the classroom). By means of interdisciplinary cooperation within the Priority Programme, the embeddedness of laypersons’ understanding of science in everyday science-related experiences and into the complexity of public discussions about science will be examined thoroughly, in order to take into account the heterogeneity of the scientific information available.

• DFG Programme: Priority Programmes
• International Connection: Norway, USA

Projects

• Affective Science - Emotionale und kognitive Verarbeitung von fragilen wissenschaftlichen Medieninhalten (Applicant Schwab, Frank )
• 'Climate change' from the audience perspective. Perception and interpretation of a scientific topic in the process of public communication. Climate change communication in online public arenas and its effects. (Applicant Neverla, Irene )
• Communicating scientific uncertainty of emerging technologies in life sciences (Applicants Maier, Michaela ;  Milde, Jutta ;  Ruhrmann, Georg )
• Coordination Funds (Applicant Bromme, Rainer )
• Determinanten der Selektion und Einstellungsbildung bei der Rezeption von Wissenschafts-informationen im Internet (Applicant Krämer, Nicole )
• Die Entwicklung der Fähigkeit zum Umgang mit fragiler und konfligierender wissenschaftlicher Evidenz im Grundschulalter (Applicants Reiss, Kristina ;  Sodian, Beate )
• Die Rolle der Onlinekommunikation bei der Herstellung von Vertrauen in medizinisches Wissen (Applicant Hasebrink, Uwe )
• Die Rolle moralischer Heuristiken bei der Verarbeitung fragiler und konfligierender Evidenz von gesellschaftlichen Risiken. (Applicant Pfister, Hans-Rüdiger )
• Division of Cognitive Labor and reading of multiple scientific documents on the internet (Applicants Bromme, Rainer ;  Stadtler, Marc )
• Effects of Communication with Experts on the Evaluation of Ambiguous Scientific Evidence: Cognitive Tuning and Social Tuning (Applicant Echterhoff, Gerald )
• Eignung verschieden vorstrukturierter Concept Mapping Umgebungen im Umgang mit fragiler und konfligierender Evidenz zur Förderung von Bewertungskompetenz bei Umweltproblemsituationen (Applicant Eggert, Sabina )
• Epistemic processing of multiple science texts on the Internet (Applicant Richter, Tobias )
• Evidenzbasiertes organisationales Handeln (Applicant Dormann, Christian )
• Evidenzbearbeitung in der Wissenschaftsberichterstattung aktueller Massenmedien (Applicant Blöbaum, Bernd )
• Fragile und konfligierende wissenschaftliche Evidenz im Entscheidungsfindungsprozess der Exzellenzinitiative und ihre Dartstellung in den Medien (Applicant Hornbostel, Stefan )
• Förderung von 'Skill' und 'Will' argumentativen Denkens beim Umgang mit fragilen und konfligierenden Positionen (Applicant Berthold, Kirsten )
• Journalistische Konstruktion von (Un-)Sicherheit: Semantische Transformationsprozesse in der Berichterstattung über Neurowissenschaften (Applicant Peters, Hans Peter )
• Knowledge construction with conflicting information from internet-based texts and pictures (Applicants Horz, Holger ;  Richter, Tobias )
• Kohärenzeinflüsse bei der Beurteilung wissenschaftlicher Erklärungen mit konfligierendem Zustand (Applicant Wittwer, Jörg )
• Motivated Biases in the Reception of Scientific Knowledge (II): Mechanisms and Consequences (Applicants Gollwitzer, Mario ;  Rothmund, Tobias )
• Processing of scientific information in online discourse (Applicant Jucks, Regina )
• Reception and production of scientific information in Wikipedia: The influence of hindsight bias and social categorization (Applicants Nestler, Steffen ;  Oeberst, Aileen )
• Scientific Reviews as legitimizing ressource for emerging research fields. The role of scientific reviews as strategic medium in the legitimation process between science and society. The case of Synthetic Biology. (Applicant Reinhart, Martin )
• The influence of media coverage and environmental conditions on the perception and evaluation of impersonal risks by the example of the chestnut leaf miner. (Applicants Brosius, Hans-Bernd ;  Weisser, Wolfgang W. )
• User-specific presentation of knowledge with conflicting evidence in museums (Applicants Lewalter, Doris ;  Schnotz, Wolfgang )
• Vermittlung konflikthafter naturwissenschaftlicher Sachverhalte in Museen und Ausstellungen: Die Rolle authentischer Objekte (Applicants Kampschulte, Lorenz ;  Schwan, Stephan )
• Vom Umgang der Wissenschaftler und Wissenschaftsjournalisten mit Nichtwissen und unsicherem Wissen in laienadressierten Texten (Applicant Janich, Nina )
• Wissenschaftsvermittlung in Internetforen zur Reproduktionsmedizin (Applicant Zillien, Nicole )
• Zur Rolle sozialer Kategorisierung beim Umgang von Laien mit fragiler und konfligierender wissenschaftlicher Evidenz im Kontext des Internet (Applicant Simon, Bernd )

• Spokesperson: Professor Dr. Rainer Bromme