Fifth SciCOM colloquium – 29 April 2022

Presented by Anne Reif (TU Braunschweig); Lars Guenther (U Hamburg, Stellenbosch U); Monika Taddicken (TU Braunschweig); Peter Weingart (Bielefeld U, Stellenbosch U); Justin T. Schröder (U Hamburg)

Trust in science is a key variable for both science communication and society, especially during the current COVID-19 pandemic. A stable level of trust in science is crucial among the population to align behaviour with scientific results, but this is challenged by the ‘infodemic’. As South Africa represents a special case, this study investigates digitised publics in South Africa regarding trust in and contact with science, as well as potential media effects and perceived changes of trust due to COVID-19. We conducted an online survey among South Africans (n=1,624) and identified five trust segments that vary in their trust in science, as well as in their use of types of science communication: trusting insiders, trusting friends, trusting optimists, undecided, and suspicious disengaged. The types of contact with science only affected the suspicious disengaged (mediated by trust in the contact types), whose trust in science was most negatively affected by COVID-19.