Communicating expert consensus increases personal support for COVID-19 mitigation policies.
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Publication Date
2021-08-18Journal Title
Journal of applied social psychology
ISSN
0021-9029
Language
eng
Type
Article
This Version
VoR
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Kerr, J. R., & van der Linden, S. (2021). Communicating expert consensus increases personal support for COVID-19 mitigation policies.. Journal of applied social psychology https://doi.org/10.1111/jasp.12827
Description
Funder: Science Foundation Ireland
Abstract
The Gateway Belief Model (GBM) places perception of a scientific consensus as a key "gateway cognition" with cascading effects on personal beliefs, concern, and ultimately support for public policies. However, few studies seeking to evaluate and extend the model have followed the specification and design of the GBM as originally outlined. We present a more complete test of the theoretical model in a novel domain: the COVID-19 pandemic. In a large multi-country correlational study (<i>N</i> = 7,206) we report that, as hypothesized by the model, perceptions of scientific consensus regarding the threat of COVID-19 predict personal attitudes toward threat and worry over the virus, which are in turn positively associated with support for mitigation policies. We also find causal support for the model in a large pre-registered survey experiment (<i>N</i> = 1,856): experimentally induced increases in perceived consensus have an indirect effect on changes in policy support mediated via changes in personal agreement with the consensus. Implications for the role of expert consensus in science communication are discussed.
Identifiers
PMC8420497, 34511636
External DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/jasp.12827
This record's URL: https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/329530
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