Identifying Groups of Trust in Science in South Africa and Germany: A Comparative Study

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Abstract Public trust in science is a key variable for science communication (research) but the COVID-19 pandemic and heterogeneous online content have challenged that trust. The potential consequence of this is the formation of diverse digitised publics worldwide. This study aims to identify different groups among online users in South Africa and Germany and compare their trust in science and their frequency of using different types of science communication (direct, mediated by social agents, journalistic media and social media). Accordingly, we conducted latent profile analyses with data from online surveys in South Africa (n = 1,541) and Germany (n = 4,440). Four comparable groups were identified based on multidimensional measures of trust in science, including scientists’ expertise, integrity, benevolence, transparency and dialogue orientation: the fully trusting, highly trusting, moderately trusting and rather untrusting. Not only did the groups’ frequencies vary between the countries, but also how often they were in contact with science through the various types of science communication. A small fifth group that was untrusting of science was only found in Germany. Against the backdrop of national differences, we will discuss explanations for higher trust in science found for South Africa and the dominance of trust in expertise in Germany.

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