When research is me-search: How researchers’ motivation to pursue a topic affects laypeople’s trust in science

Marlene Sophie Altenmüller, Leonie Lucia Lange and Mario Gollwitzer

PLOS ONE, 2021, vol. 16, issue 7, 1-19

Abstract: Research is often fueled by researchers’ scientific, but also their personal interests: Sometimes, researchers decide to pursue a specific research question because the answer to that question is idiosyncratically relevant for themselves: Such “me-search” may not only affect the quality of research, but also how it is perceived by the general public. In two studies (N = 621), we investigate the circumstances under which learning about a researcher’s “me-search” increases or decreases laypeople’s ascriptions of trustworthiness and credibility to the respective researcher. Results suggest that participants’ own preexisting attitudes towards the research topic moderate the effects of “me-search” substantially: When participants hold favorable attitudes towards the research topic (i.e., LGBTQ or veganism), “me-searchers” were perceived as more trustworthy and their research was perceived as more credible. This pattern was reversed when participants held unfavorable attitudes towards the research topic. Study 2 furthermore shows that trustworthiness and credibility perceptions generalize to evaluations of the entire field of research. Implications for future research and practice are discussed.

Date: 2021
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:plo:pone00:0253911

DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0253911

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