How Involvement,Citation Style,and Funding Source Affect the Credibility of University Scientists

Abstract

Many factors influence public perception of university scientists as credible sources of environmental news. This study looks at three of them: the scientist's funding source, the citation style, and participant involvement. In a 2× 2× 3 mixed-subjects factorial design, participants read newspaper articles and rated the credibility of the scientists identified therein. No main effects occurred for funding source or for citation style. A main effect occurred for involvement, but not as predicted: those highly involved rated the scientists as more credible than those less involved. No interactions occurred. Reasons for these inconclusive but still informative results are explored.