D1.2 REVIEW PAPER OF SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE

The present deliverable provides a summary of a systematic literature review on the topic of trust in science, and it has been produced for the purposes of T1.1. Systematic Literature Review of the VERITY project.

The performed systematic literature review is based on a total of 83 articles, carefully selected after screening 546 articles. The selected articles provide empirical results from various scientific disciplines (e.g., social and educational psychology, medicine, science education, science communication), which were carefully collected and analysed in order to answer the following research question:

RQ: What factors are associated with public trust in science in the literature?

The results of the analysis performed for the purposes of the systematic literature review revealed the presence of 26 different factors associated with public trust in science, which can be divided in the following three categories:

1. Characteristics of the public
2. Science communication
3. Scientific method, scientists, and scientific institutions

The first category concerns the factors related to the profiles of various individuals who tend to have lower or higher trust in science. The second category concerns the ways in which science communication strategies increase or decrease the perceived trustworthiness of science. The third category concerns the characteristics of the scientific method and research processes, as well as the characteristics of the researchers and institutions producing scientific knowledge, which jointly increase or decrease the perceived trustworthiness of science.

The aim of this task is to provide a state-of-the-art literature review, which reflects the current knowledge on the factors associated with the public’s trust in science and identifies gaps in our current understanding of the issue. A more detailed presentation of the results of the performed systematic literature review will be provided in an open access scientific article to be submitted for publication in due course. The article will provide further information on the evidence supporting the various factors related to trust in science, as well as a more elaborate discussion on the main research directions, theoretical claims, and methodological approaches. It will also point to existing uncertainties, contradictions, and research demands, distinguishing between consensual and contested claims.