SPP 1409 - Subproject: The division of cognitive labor and reading multiple scientifc documents on the Internet (2nd funding period)

Basic data for this project

Description

The project examines laypersons` use of conflicting scientific information on the Internet. Science topics to be dealt with are taken from the fields of medicine and climate change. A wide-spread variant of Internet search is simulated experimentally: Laypersons search for expert information within partly conflicting documents to substantiate an informed decision. Because scientific information is usually tentative and conflicting in nature the central question arises under which conditions laypersons become aware of conflicts and how they evaluate argumentation, in which conflicts are embedded. In a first series of studies we seek to examine factors that impact on how readers detect and process conflicting information. In a parallel series of studies we examine factors that influence laypersons` attempts to subjectively resolve scientific conflicts. Further studies are conducted to shed light on laypersons' assumptions about the distribution and strucuture of scientific knowledge in modern societies.On a theoretical level the project relates to the Content-Source-Integration model put foward by Stadtler & Bromme (2010) and to the theory of the division of cognitive labor in relation to comprehending scientific information from multiple documents.