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

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.