Trustworthiness of Experts in Online Videos

Experimental Study on the Perceived Trustworthiness of Scientific Experts in Online Videos

Project Partners

• Prof. Dr. Monika Taddicken
• Dr. Anne Reif
• Tim Kneisel, M. Sc.
• Markus Schäfer, M. Sc.

Description

Scientific findings form the basis for many everyday decisions, but are often very complex and difficult to understand for non-experts. The debate about the importance of popular science communication exists for a long time, but has regained importance due to the impact of the Internet. Given easy access and constant availability, non-experts have to decide which sources they trust and which they do not.

This project aims to determine how non-experts assess trustworthiness: Do male experts appear to be more knowledgeable than female experts? How does the video format (TV interview vs. YouTube video) in which the experts appear influence their perceived trustworthiness? Moreover, what role does the emotional evaluation by users play in the assessment?

The students Tim Kneisel and Markus Schäfer conducted a research project on this topic in the module "Methods of User, Reception, and Impact Research" of the master’s program in Media Technology and Communication in the summer semester of 2018. Both continued their research afterwards in the communication studies project module.

Publication

• Reif, A., Kneisel, T., Schäfer, M., & Taddicken, M. (2020). Why Are Scientific Experts Perceived as Trustworthy? Emotional Assessment within TV and YouTube Videos. Media and Communication, 8(1), 191–205. https://doi.org/10.17645/mac.v8i1.2536

Presentations

• Reif, A., Kneisel, T., Schäfer, M., & Taddicken, M (2021, Septeber 6-9). Why is a scientific expert perceived as trustworthy? Emotional assessment within TV and YouTube videos [Presentation]. 8^th European Communication Conference (ECREA), University of Minho, Braga, virtual.
• Kneisel, T., Schäfer, M., Reif, A., & Taddicken, M. (2019, May 9). Expert*innen in Onlineumgebungen: Zwei experimentelle Studien zur Vertrauenswürdigkeit von Wissenschaftlerinnen und Wissenschaftlern [Presentation]. Pre-Conference for the Annual Conference of the German Communication Association (DGPuK), Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster, Germany.

Funding