Marques Mathew D, Kerr John R, Stukas Arthur A, McLennan Jim
La Trobe University, Australia.
University of Otago, New Zealand.
Public Underst Sci. 2025 Jul;34(5):646-664. doi: 10.1177/09636625241300896. Epub 2024 Dec 4.
Many conspiracy theories implicate scientists and science. We investigated the impact of exposure to scientific conspiracies about biotechnologies. Across three preregistered online studies (s = 1,000), participants who read information about conspiracies involving agribiotechnology companies or biobank scientists were more likely to endorse conspiracies. Other effects of exposure to conspiracy information were mixed. In Study 1, reading about an agricultural biotechnology conspiracy had a small significant effect on reducing intentions to eat genetically modified food. In Study 2, exposure to a conspiracy involving biobank scientists decreased support for biobanks, mediated by decreased trust in biobank scientists. In Study 3, this conspiracy had no effect on wider beliefs of the role of science in society (science populism), nor support of genetically modified food-promoting policies. Overall, we found that exposure to conspiracies involving scientific claims increased conspiracy belief endorsement and can further negative effects. However, the effects of conspiracies on science populism appear limited.
许多阴谋论都将科学家和科学牵扯其中。我们调查了接触有关生物技术的科学阴谋论的影响。在三项预先注册的在线研究（样本量 = 1000）中，阅读有关涉及农业生物技术公司或生物样本库科学家的阴谋信息的参与者更有可能认同阴谋论。接触阴谋信息的其他影响则喜忧参半。在研究1中，阅读有关农业生物技术阴谋的内容对降低食用转基因食品的意愿有微小但显著的影响。在研究2中，接触涉及生物样本库科学家的阴谋论会降低对生物样本库的支持，这一影响是由对生物样本库科学家的信任度下降所介导的。在研究3中，这种阴谋论对科学在社会中作用的更广泛信念（科学民粹主义）没有影响，对支持转基因食品推广政策也没有影响。总体而言，我们发现接触涉及科学主张的阴谋论会增加对阴谋论的认同，并可能产生进一步的负面影响。然而，阴谋论对科学民粹主义的影响似乎有限。
