Short abstract:

Whilst many scholars are worried about the effects of the social media infodemic regarding COVID-19 on public trust in science, the evidence about the relationship is conflicting. We conduct a study on the relationship between trust in science and social media use in the Netherlands.

Long abstract:

Since the WHO dubbed the spread of false or misleading information about COVID-19 an infodemic, research into this phenomenon has spiked (Pérez Escolar et al., 2023). According to worried scholars, we should be greatly concerned about the prevalence of scientific misinformation on social media. The public distrust it causes in science, and its overall deleterious effects on society should be addressed (Agley & Xiao, 2021; Skafle et al., 2022; Wang et al., 2019). Not surprisingly, ample policy attention is devoted to containing the impact of misinformation (European Court of Auditors, 2021).

However, empirical evidence about the prevalence of misinformation on social media is conflicting and the behavioral change it might cause seems underresearched (Altay et al., 2023). In fact, scientific evidence about the relationship between distrust in science and social media use is not evident (ibid, Bogert et al., 2023). Moreover, almost all research on misinformation is conducted in the USA whilst cultural context is pivotal when measuring effect (Huber et al., 2019). Indications that interventions against misinformation may backfire, make it urgent to study the topic (Hoes et al., 2023; Van Der Meer et al., 2023)

In this project, we investigate a broad scope of factors affecting distrust in science among Dutch citizens, including social media use. Following an interdisciplinary literature study, we conduct several focus groups with people having relatively little trust in science or high social media use. This will shed light on the complicated relationship between trust in science and social media use in the Netherlands.