关于有争议的科学问题的共识信息是否会影响对共识和/或个人信念的看法?这个问题仍然悬而未决,特别是针对气候变化以外的主题和美国以外的样本。在西班牙国家样本中(N=5087),我们使用预先注册的调查实验来检查疫苗和转基因生物的共识信息变化的不同功效.我们发现共识信息的变化不会影响疫苗的信念。对于转基因生物,关于哪些误解在我们的样本中特别普遍,我们发现科学共识信息增加了共识的感知和个人认为转基因生物是安全的,并减少对禁令的支持。共识程度的提高没有一致的效果。尽管个体差异(例如阴谋论的世界观)预测了这些转基因生物的信念,它们不会削弱共识信息的影响。虽然我们观察到相对适度的效应大小,共识消息传递可能能够提高对某些有争议主题的信念的准确性。
Does
consensus messaging about contested science issues influence perceptions of
consensus and/or personal beliefs? This question remains open, particularly for topics other than climate change and samples outside the United States. In a Spanish national sample (N = 5087), we use preregistered survey experiments to examine differential efficacy of variations in
consensus messaging for vaccines and genetically modified organisms. We find that no variation of
consensus messaging influences vaccine beliefs. For genetically modified organisms, about which misperceptions are particularly prevalent in our sample, we find that scientific consensus messaging increases perception of
consensus and personal belief that genetically modified organisms are safe, and decreases support for a ban. Increasing degree of
consensus did not have consistent effects. Although individual differences (e.g. a conspiratorial worldview) predict these genetically modified organism beliefs, they do not undercut consensus message effects. While we observe relatively modest effect sizes, consensus messaging may be able to improve the accuracy of beliefs about some contentious topics.