Doctoral Dissertation Research in DRMS - Impressions Matter: The Role of Scientists’ Self- Presentation in Effective Risk Communication on Social Media

The rise of social media platforms has reshaped our communication landscape, fostering diverse content creation and impacting the dynamics of information dissemination. Within this ecology, scientists have emerged as increasingly pivotal risk communicators on social media: for example, scientists were propelled to the forefront of public discourse during the Covid-19 pandemic, positioning themselves as experts in these online information environments. This project explores how scientists may leverage social media to present their research and themselves to the public, as well as how public audiences might respond to this “self-presentation.” Specifically, how might certain self-presentation strategies impact audience perceptions of scientists' competence, warmth, humility, and transparency, and how might these perceptions relate to risk understanding and support for risk-related policies? Understanding the potential persuasive impacts of scientists’ social media use may support the identification and development of effective risk communication practices not only for scientists, but other stakeholders on social media and beyond. This research aims to help empower scientists at all levels and from different backgrounds and experiences in risk communication. This research addresses these guiding questions by examining the impact of scientists' self-presentation strategies across two relevant areas: (1) the dissemination of their research outcomes and (2) the contextualization of their research processes. The researchers explore how these strategies may impact audiences’ perceptions of scientists as risk communicators through two mechanisms—expectancy violation and identification—and how source perceptions may relate to risk perceptions and policy support. Lastly, the researchers examine two message-level features of these self-presentation strategies (personalization and emotionalization) as potential moderators that may impact these relationships. To test the conceptual framework, the researchers are collecting and analyzing data from two randomized experiments that involve a general population sample of adults. Altogether, this research bridges literature on social media with strategic risk communication and persuasion to offer a more nuanced perspective of an evolving aspect of risk communication as situated in a networked environment. 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.