Maria Jensen, “How Different Modes of Science Impact our Willingness to Accept Expert Testimony”
Mentor: Christopher Lawson, Educational Psychology
Poster #43

Our project focuses on the factors involved in people’s trust of scientific results. One particular aspect we are looking at is the amount of trust in citizen science, which is the participation of non-professional members of the public in scientific discovery, with or without the participation of professional researchers. In light of a recent trend of distrust in scientists, we assessed people’s trust in the scientific findings of citizens compared to the scientific findings of researchers. We administered an online survey where people were paid a small amount in return for their responses. The survey depicted two scenarios that involved problems that required research-based solutions, one about a community struggling with crime and one about a community needing more green space. We created two versions of each, one where the research to solve the problem was done by an expert group (e.g. Department of Housing and Urban Development), and one where the research was done by community members (e.g. a local focus group). We then asked participants about their degree of trust in the group and their solution. We anticipate that people will trust the community group more and think that the community group is more likely to have their best interests in mind. We hope our project will contribute to a growing body of research on the effectiveness of citizen science and the process of opening science up further to the public.