CAREER: Assessing the effect of source credibility on public perceptions of science and place-based conservation

职业：评估来源可信度对公众对科学和地方保护的看法的影响

• 批准号: 2143843
• 负责人: Dara Wald
• 金额: $ 53万
• 依托单位: Texas A&M AgriLife Research
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2022-07-01 至 2027-06-30
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2143843&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: CAREER; Assessing; effect; source; credibility

Public support for scientific influence on policy increases when scientists are perceived as acting in the public’s best interests. Yet most U.S. adults are skeptical of scientists’ goodwill (e.g., commitment to public good). Goodwill is a key dimension of source credibility, a shortcut used by the public to interpret scientific findings and recommendations. Despite its key role, little is currently known about how goodwill emerges, varies and is contested across individuals and groups to motivate (or not) evidence-based action. This project will address this gap by identifying the key drivers of perceived technoscientific (TS) source goodwill and determining when and how technoscientific goodwill and communication shape responses to environmental messages among agricultural land operators (i.e., farmers, foresters, ranchers). Research findings will encourage efforts to incentivize evidence-based land stewardship that mitigates land-based climate emissions and maximizes the benefits of conservation science for people and the environment. The proposed CAREER project will identify an improved evidence-based model of the factors shaping public perceptions of technoscientific (TA) source credibility and further efforts to measure, test, and employ goodwill as a means of promoting effective public communication. This research uses latent semantic analysis and mixed-methods content analysis to identify and compare the socio-cultural beliefs undergirding agricultural land operators and TS sources’ mental models of source credibility. An online message experiment will be used to test the effects of goodwill signals and hedging on perceptions of TS source credibility and support for conservation practices on agricultural lands. Furthermore, this CAREER project integrates research and teaching with the development and evaluation of a novel educational curriculum that engages agricultural communities and prepares natural resource professionals to signal goodwill and recognize the cultural realities informing responses to evidence-based messages. As such, this project will provide a foundation for improved science communication training, more effective and evidence-based environmental messaging, and enhanced goodwill between agricultural communities and TS sources.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

当将科学家视为符合公众的最大利益时，公众对科学影响的支持就会增加。然而，大多数美国成年人都对科学家的善意表示怀疑（例如，对公共利益的承诺）。商誉是来源信誉的关键维度，这是公众用来解释科学发现和建议的快捷方式。尽管其关键作用，但目前知之甚少，关于善意的出现，各种各样的态度和竞争，以激发（或不）基于证据的行动。该项目将通过确定感知技术（TS）来源商誉的关键动力来解决这一差距，并确定何时以及如何以及如何在农业土地运营商（即农民，林业者，牧场主）中对环境信息的技术善意和如何对环境信息产生响应。研究发现将鼓励努力激励基于证据的土地管理，以减轻陆基气候排放，并最大程度地提高保护科学对人和环境的好处。拟议的职业项目将确定改进的基于证据的模型，以塑造公众对技术的看法（TA）来源信誉以及进一步衡量，测试和员工商誉的努力，以促进有效的公共交流。这项研究使用潜在的语义分析和混合方法分析来识别和比较涉及农业土地运营商和TS来源的源信誉模型的社会文化信念。将使用一个在线消息实验来测试商誉信号的影响，并对对应的TS来源信誉和对农业土地保护惯例的支持。此外，该职业项目将研究和教学与一项新型教育课程的发展和评估相结合，该课程吸引了农业社区，并准备自然资源专业人士向善意发出信号，并认识到为基于证据的信息提供回应的文化现实。因此，该项目将为改善科学沟通培训，更有效和基于证据的环境信息传递，增强农业社区和TS资料之间的善意提供基础。该奖项反映了NSF的法定任务，并被认为是通过基金会的知识分子优点和更广泛影响的审查标准通过评估来通过评估来支持的。