The School of Communication & The Robert S. Iltis Colloquium Series Presents: Xuerong Lu

From Doubt to Trust: Leveraging Uncertainty and Hope to Counter Science Misinformation

To mitigate the dire consequences of misinformation and trust erosion, this study experimentally examined how prebunking interventions could be optimized through uncertainty acknowledgment and hope appeals. Prebunking messages acknowledging uncertainty, especially when paired with a hope appeal, increased support for funding science initiatives and reduced intention to engage with misinformation via institutional trust and information quality (i.e., prebunking and misinformation)