ArticlePloS one2022
An anchor in troubled times: Trust in science before and within the COVID-19 pandemic.
Article in PloS one, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 42 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
42 citing papers in PubMed.
- Four-Year Effects of a Computer-Based Brief Alcohol Intervention Targeting Alcohol Users in the General Population: Randomized Controlled Trial.Journal of medical Internet research · 2025Trial
- Using Normative Language When Describing Scientific Findings: Randomized Controlled Trial of Effects on Trust and Credibility.Journal of medical Internet research · 2023Trial
- The role of age, sex, and ethnicity in vaccine trust, and sources of information in Canada: Findings from a national survey.Human vaccines & immunotherapeutics · 2026Article
- Trust undone: How COVID-19 coverage shaped scientists' trust in journalism and their willingness to engage with the media.Public understanding of science (Bristol, England) · 2026Article
- The Italian Validation of the Trust in Medical Researchers-Short Scale: A Cross-Sectional Study.Health science reports · 2026Article
- Long-term media effects on public attitudes toward science in Switzerland: A panel survey of the Swiss population.Public understanding of science (Bristol, England) · 2026Article
- The Road from Science to Health: The Importance of Designing For, Measuring, and Communicating Impact in Public Health.Annual review of public health · 2026Review
- Increasing trust in science through a "Do Your Own Research" intervention.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Factors associated with perceptions of science communication in Latin America during the COVID-19 pandemic.Frontiers in public health · 2026Article
- Trust in science during the COVID-19 pandemic: A typology of internet users in South Africa.PloS one · 2026Article
- Trust in scientists and their role in society across 68 countries.Nature human behaviour · 2025Article
- Perceptions of science, science communication, and climate change attitudes in 68 countries - the TISP dataset.Scientific data · 2025Article
- 'Follow the science': Popular trust in scientific experts during the coronavirus pandemic.Public understanding of science (Bristol, England) · 2025Article
- Article
- Why did people refuse vaccination during the pandemic? Exploring the impacts of trust and vaccine risk perception on COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy in China.Frontiers in public health · 2025Article
- Considerations for prioritising clinical research using bacteriophage.Essays in biochemistry · 2024Review
- Citizen science as an instrument for women's health research.Nature medicine · 2024Article
- Ideological diversity of media consumption predicts COVID-19 vaccination.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Review
- Difficulties faced by physicians from four European countries in rebutting antivaccination arguments: a cross-sectional study.BMJ public health · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Researchers, policy makers and science communicators have become increasingly been interested in factors that affect public's trust in science. Recently, one such potentially important driving factor has emerged, the COVID-19 pandemic. Have trust in science and other science-related beliefs changed in Germany from before to during the pandemic? To investigate this, we re-analyzed data from a set of representative surveys conducted in April, May, and November 2020, which were obtained as part of the German survey Science Barometer, and compared it to data from the last annual Science Barometer survey that took place before the pandemic, (in September 2019). Results indicate that German's trust in science increased substantially after the pandemic began and slightly declined in the months thereafter, still being higher in November 2020 than in September 2019. Moreover, trust was closely related to expectations about how politics should handle the pandemic. We also find that increases of trust were most pronounced among the higher-educated. But as the pandemic unfolded, decreases of trust were more likely among supporters of the populist right-wing party AfD. We discuss the sustainability of these dynamics as well as implications for science communication.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.