2025/03/21 by Sacha Ferrari, Wouter Lammers, Sylvia Wenmackers · 1 voice
Social Sciences · #Climate Change Communication and Perception
paper · pdf · doi:10.1017/psa.2025.11
Abstract We present an agent-based model to study how the structure of a scientific network could affect the public uptake of science and how this impact is influenced by scientific uncertainty and affinity bias. For unbiased agents, a highly connected scientific network decreases the probability that the public favors the correct theory. For biased agents, however, a moderately connected scientific network causes the public to favor the correct theory more often. This results from the competition between the scarcity of information (for poorly connected agents) and the spread of misleading information (for highly connected agents). Adding more scientists strengthens both effects.