Is research performance related to academic freedom? A preprint co-authored with @lutzb.bsky.social conducts a large-scale empirical analysis on the national level to this question. osf.io/2mh8f #academicfreedom #AcademicFreedomIndex Short 🧵

Finally! 🤩 Our position piece: Against the Uncritical Adoption of 'AI' Technologies in Academia: doi.org/10.5281/zeno... We unpick the tech industry’s marketing, hype, & harm; and we argue for safeguarding higher education, critical thinking, expertise, academic freedom, & scientific integrity. 1/n

In this new Commentary in @natclimate.nature.com, I reflect on the recent focus on truth discernment in #misinfo research and argue that this outcome alone may not be beneficial to society if interventions do not improve behaviour and other outcomes because... 1/ www.nature.com/articles/s41...

“De wetenschap heeft een tweeledige rol: als locomotief van de vooruitgang, maar ook als rem om de trein van de geschiedenis op de rails te houden.” Robbert Dijkgraaf in @nrc.nl Trump en de tech-trawanten www.nrc.nl/nieuws/2025/... www.nrc.nl/nieuws/2025/...

How much do people really reject science? New paper out doi.org/10.1177/0963... In four studies, we asked Americans—including flat Earthers, climate change deniers and vaccine skeptics—whether they accepted basic scientific facts. The result? A surprisingly high level of agreement. 👇

🚀 We’re live! The Political Communication Division of @nefca.bsky.social is now on BlueSky. Follow us for updates on research, events, and conversations in the PolCom community.

@nielsmede.bsky.social is opening our workshop based on his TrygFonden * @ddc-sdu.bsky.social fellowship on countering science related online harrassment - very excited to discuss how to support science communicators with a stellar line-up of academics and stakeholders!

thrilled that our guides for #OpenScience in developing countries is now published in AMPPS of @psychscience.bsky.social: journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/... Please see the thread for details

🧵 Can you predict whether behavioral interventions will work in new contexts? … probably not, right? In our new paper with @dggoldst.bsky.social @dilipsoman.bsky.social @susanmichie.bsky.social, we dive into how to better understand and improve generalizability. rdcu.be/ewD2z Summary👇

It’s not just social media algorithms that determine whether content goes viral. Research by @steverathje.bsky.social and @jayvanbavel.bsky.social finds how the psychology of spreaders and consumers interacts with the environment also significantly influences virality: buff.ly/q17VnXN

Which is why the way reporting is done is crucial... "We find: It’s not necessarily firsthand experience of extreme weather events. Instead, it’s whether people think that these events are linked to climate change."

What if science communication wasn’t just about facts—but about trust, humility & shared values? This new agenda from PNAS calls for participatory models to replace top-down fixes. In this ultra-polarized environment, it’s about co-creation, not just correction. What are your thoughts? 🧪🧬🔬

Excellent new study in @actapolitica.bsky.social: @roderikrekker.bsky.social uses 15 years of representative panel survey data (2007-2022, n = 19,084) to show how science skepticism is linked to political discontent in the Netherlands ⬇️

New paper: What increases people’s support for policy responses to #climate #change? ✊ We find: It’s not necessarily firsthand experience of extreme weather events. Instead, it’s whether people think that these events are linked to climate change. Here is the paper: www.nature.com/articles/s41... 🔎

🚨 How do exposure to extreme weather events and the subjective attribution of these events to climate change relate to climate policy support across the world? 🔥🌎 Find out more in our OA article published in Nature Climate Change 👇 1/7 🧵 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Ade Zürich, hallo #Wageningen! This week I started my new position as Assistant Professor at @w-u-r.bsky.social ✨ Thanks a lot for the warm welcome – I'm very excited about what’s ahead! At the same time, I'm very grateful for the years I spent at @ikmz.bsky.social. Merci vielmal und uf widerluege 🫶

This was a remarkable milestone in our careers, and the next steps look very promising with our TISP leaders @colognaviktoria.bsky.social and @nielsmede.bsky.social. If you haven’t read our article yet, it’s fully open access. #PhilSky #AcademicSky

🤔 How much do politicians engage with academic researchers online? In my latest paper, I find that politicians from 12 countries rarely engage with researchers on social media, but this can change when expertise gains salience Preprint: osf.io/preprints/osf/wqbe4_v1 🧵👇

Young adults who overestimate their knowledge about climate change try to reach out to politicians and persuade others more often. This is what we find in our brand new OA paper. See @nielsmede.bsky.social amazing thread for more info 👇

Published in Social Media + Society: Our 4-wave panel #survey on the relationship between #socialmedia and misperceptions of one’s knowledge about #climate #change – co-authored with @larakobilke.bsky.social @naylafawzi.bsky.social #ThomasZerback: journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/... ✨

" #scicomm in the face of attacks: Discussing harassment of scholars and practitioners and potential support measures." Fabien Medvecky, @nielsmede.bsky.social , @jlegelhofer.bsky.social , Bernard Okebe, Alice Fleerackers and Tom Carruthers

Public engagement in science en 68 países, parte de los resultados del proyecto TISP en el que hemos participado desde FECYT y que presenta @nielsmede.bsky.social en #PCST2025 Preprint: www.researchgate.net/publication/...

New paper alert! Published in Social Cognition, people want experts to be intellectually humble, but see all these experts as falling short of this ideal level of intellectual humility. We discuss implications for person perception and public trust. Full paper here: doi.org/10.1521/soco...

🌍What does global trust in science really look like in 2025? Read our new piece by Jordyn Wald summarizing research by @colognaviktoria.bsky.social, @nielsmede.bsky.social and dozens of other researchers around the world in @nathumbehav.nature.com: 🔗 bit.ly/4kcgTV6 🔗

Science communication meets poetry: I was invited to contribute an audio essay about our study on trust in scientists to “The Academic Minute” by @wamcradio.bsky.social, hosted by @aacu.org President Lynn Pasquerella. Thanks a lot for having me! 🎙️ 🔗 academicminute.org/niels-mede-u... #scicomm #TISP

The Guidelines for good Research Communication are now available in English. They provide orientation and support for research communicators. They specify the roles and responsibilities of the actors involved and include a checklist for practice. 📄 wissenschaft-im-dialog.de/documents/42... #SciComm

"On a weekly basis more than 90% of people use weather forecasts, job market reports, food safety warnings and other information that is based on federal science. But only 10% ... are concerned that cuts to federal support for science might impact their access to [it]." www.npr.org/2025/05/06/n...

Excited to present a workshop on misinfo at the “Listen, Engage, Connect: Explore the Science Communication Arena” Summer School at the University of Geneva. Runs from June 23-27. Ideal for students, early-career researchers, science communicators. Register before 31 May at bit.ly/scicomm25

I cowrote a column in @nature.com about the need for scientists to secure public trust in an age of polarization We discussed strategies that could restore trust in research and encouraged more research on the topic. You can read the full column here: www.nature.com/articles/d41...

New paper with #IsabelVillanueva and @kaipingchen.bsky.social ✨ We tested how online users discuss #plagiarism, data #fraud, #replication failure, and (unintentional) errors by scientists – based on 19,462 X posts by @retractionwatch.com and 22,936 user replies: journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

Mis/disinformation research officially cancelled. Understanding the creation, content, distribution, and susceptibility is one of today’s key scientific and societal challenges. Researching this is not free speech infringement. Such a claim is intentionally misleading. www.nsf.gov/updates-on-p...

Just been reading this great blog post by @dingdingpeng.the100.ci on accessible technical writing. Lots of good advice (some of which I knew, some was new to me) clearly laid out in one handy place! www.the100.ci/2024/12/01/w...

🧠📰 Disagreement helps build trust in science. A new study shows people trust scientists less when news includes disagreement – especially if they cannot tell experts from non-experts. 🔗 www.nature.com/articles/s41... #SciComm #TrustInScience 🧪

🆕 New article in Publizistik (OA): link.springer.com/article/10.1... I introduce the concept of counter-knowledge orders (CKOs) to better understand digital dissent & disruption + far-right knowledge strategies. (1/4) #commsky #misinformation #knowledge #farright

Open #postdoc position in #science #communication at @ikmz.bsky.social – one that I fully and genuinely recommend. I've worked 6+ years in this team, and it's these very colleagues, NB @mss7676.bsky.social, and the exceptional research conditions that make me sad to leave #IKMZ soon 🙏 ➡️ t.uzh.ch/1PM

Open #postdoc position in @mss7676.bsky.social's team at #IKMZ! 📣 Consider applying by 15.05.25 if you do research on #science #communication – including communication about science-related topics like #AI, #health, and #climate. Also, please spread the word! More info: jobs.uzh.ch/offene-stell...

1️⃣ More and more, we see scientists openly expressing emotions—moving away from the traditional norm of "rational", "neutral" communication. But what are the consequences of this shift? Does showing emotion compromise a scientist’s credibility? In our latest publication, we explored this question 🧵👇

Introducing ‘trust cues’ – new #scicomm research paper by Justin Schröder, Janise Brück & Lars Guenther to identify trust cues in media content – see doi.org/10.22323/2.2...

New #publication! We investigated users of alternative sources of science information – i.e., sources that see themselves as corrective voices to “mainstream” sources 🗣️ Many thanks to first author Lena Zils and my co-authors @wintterlin.bsky.social @juliametag.bsky.social @mss7676.bsky.social! 🙏

The 2025 Kickstarter Fund of the #sciencecommunication section of the German Communication Association goes to: Janine Blessing & Paula Stehr! @hendriks.bsky.social and I set up the fund to support innovative #scicomm formats and studies by bright ECRs such as Janine and Paula – congrats! 🙌 #dgpuk25

12 new psychological instruments are now in #REPOPSI, bringing LIRA Lab's open repository to 270 records🎉 Latest addition: Trust in Scientists Scale, developed for a many lab study led by @colognaviktoria.bsky.social & @nielsmede.bsky.social 🔗 www.repopsi.f.bg.ac.rs/en/ #PsychSciSky #OpenScience

What’s the state of #trust in #science in Africa? @marinajoubert.bsky.social, @colognaviktoria.bsky.social, Patrick Ansah, and I published a commentary in @nature.com #Africa, presenting new insights for 12 African countries 🌍 www.nature.com/articles/d44...

#News: As of July 1, 2025, I will be an Assistant Professor for communication in life science contexts at @w-u-r.bsky.social. I’ll join the wonderful Strategic Communication group of @rensvliegenthart.bsky.social, who leads a team of excellent researchers whom I’m really excited to work with 🙌 (1/4)

Our new piece in Nature Machine Intelligence: LLMs are replacing human participants, but can they simulate diverse respondents? Surveys use representative sampling for a reason, and our work shows how LLM training prevents accurate simulation of different human identities.

It was about time someone developed a proper science literacy measure! This scale looks very promising ✨

A new study developed a 14-item scale to measure science literacy, including media skills and cognitive biases, and found that political beliefs shape how people perceive misinformation. journals.sagepub.com/doi/epub/10.... #SciComm

We present: A new instrument to measure people’s science literacy. #OpenAccess in #ScienceCommunication: journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.... 📢 It’s a 14-item #survey scale in English, German, French and Italian covering three key dimensions of science literacy: civic, media and cognitive literacy 💡

Excited to share the findings from our new study on #GenAI led by Esther Greussing and Lars Guenther. We explore the use of GenAI (specifically ChatGPT) for science-related information search across seven countries. Our research note is online now (and it's open access 😀) doi.org/10.1177/0963...

Excited and honored to be one of this year’s @ddc-sdu.bsky.social × #TrygFonden Fellows at @sdu.dk. I’ll lead a project on #online #harassment of scientists, mentored by the great @lenafrescamente.bsky.social 🔎 Looking forward to meeting all the people at the Centre and my fellow fellows! 🙌

Critical comms about climate change is increasingly happening on social media. But it is challenging to study climate comms on popular social media platforms, so researchers often rely on survey research. How much do survey responses tell us how things will play out on social media? Thread 🧵