Prinicipal investigator: Jennifer Bast

Funding organisation: German Research Foundation (DFG)

Funding period: 2026-2028

Description: The project examines how and under what conditions parties and politicians in Germany use Anti-Science Communication (ASC) – that is, rhetoric that criticizes or even undermines scientists or scientific expertise. To this end, social media posts by political actors are analyzed and online survey experiments are conducted to shed light on the short- and long-term effects of such messages on citizens’ attitudes and behavioral intentions. In contrast to previous studies, actors from across the entire political spectrum are taken into account in order to clarify whether ASC is primarily a populist phenomenon or whether it has broader strategic applications.