Anti-COVID = Anti-science? How protesters against COVID-19 measures appropriate science to navigate the information environment

Abstract

Opponents of COVID-19 measures invoke science in curious ways: they collect data, cite scientific studies, and even conduct their own research projects. Previous research has explained these scientific appropriations as the product of motivated reasoning, the result of widespread disinformation, or a populist strategy. This study provides a further explanation by focusing on these scientific projects. Drawing from repeated interviews with a select group of 36 anti-lockdown protesters in Germany, I find that my interviewees draw on scientific repertoires in order to overcome information insecurities triggered by their discovery of online countermedia. Although the results of their scientific efforts often remain inconclusive, through the process of doing research, protesters achieve a reorientation in the information environment and begin to rely on countermedia as a source of information and political opinion. Based on these findings, I argue that protesters refer to the sciences as a conversion technique.