Rethinking Rationality. Scientists’ Perspectives on Health Communication After the COVID-19 Pandemic
Hella de Haas et al.
Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic represented a turning point for many scientists, challenging established motives and attitudes toward public communication and raising new questions about their willingness to communicate publicly. During this time, scientists faced unprecedented scrutiny, leading to both recognition and maltreatment by the media, politicians and the public. This paper examines whether the pandemic experience altered scientists' rationale for engaging in health communication-specifically, whether perceived benefits (e.g. contributing to the public good) still outweigh potential costs (e.g. exposure to hostility). Based on a survey of N = 4,207 researchers at German universities and research institutions, our findings indicate that negative perceptions of how politicians and journalists treated scientists diminished their assessment of public communication as a rational endeavor, leading to decreased willingness to communicate, particularly regarding self-interested motives.
Evidence weight
Balanced mode · F 0.40 / M 0.15 / V 0.05 / R 0.40
| F · citation impact | 0.50 × 0.4 = 0.20 |
| M · momentum | 0.50 × 0.15 = 0.07 |
| V · venue signal | 0.50 × 0.05 = 0.03 |
| R · text relevance † | 0.50 × 0.4 = 0.20 |
† Text relevance is estimated at 0.50 on the detail page — for your query’s actual relevance score, open this paper from a search result.