Polls indicate that individuals trust scientists to act in the public's best interest far more than they trust mainstream media to act in the public's best interest.

76% of respondents said they had trust in scientists while only 38% trusted mainstream media.


Pepperdine University

Although mainstream media has traditionally been viewed as more credible and a trustworthy source for health and news information, few people have confidence in the media to act in the public's best interest

Trust in Mainstream Media

Verma, N., Fleischmann, K., & Koltai, K.S. (2017). Human values and trust in scientific journals, the mainstream media and fake news. Proceedings of the Association for Information Science and Technology, 54, 426 - 435. https://doi.org/10.1002/pra2.2017.14505401046.

Human Values and Trust in Scientific Journals,
the Mainstream Media and Fake News

Trust in Mainstream Media VS. Trust in Scientists

A 2002 study by Devos et al. found that participants who highly valued stability and preservation of tradition were more likely to trust institutions (such as the media) than those who highly valued independent thought.

Personal Values and Trust in Institutions

According to Gil & Artz (2007) the criteria that people use (often unconsciously) to determine the trustworthiness of online information includes:
- topic
- context 
- criticality
- popularity
- authority
- direct experience
- recommendation
- related resources
- provenance
- user expertise
- bias
- incentive
- limited resources
- agreement
- specificity
- likelihood
- age
- appearance
- deception
- recency

Criteria Used to Determine the Trustworthiness of Online Information 

Verma, Fleischmann, & Koltai (2017) performed an experiment in which they presented participants with simulated Twitter posts containing a scientific claim and one of the following: a hyperlink to a scientific article, a hyperlink to a mainstream media site, a hyperlink to a fake news site, a hidden hyperlink, or no hyperlink. They then compared how likely those with specific values were to click on or trust the different types of links.

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