Public role perceptions of (climate) scientists on social media

Abstract

Abstract Public debates on socio-scientific issues like climate change increasingly unfold on social media. Although scientists’ roles in these debates have been widely discussed, little empirical evidence exists on how the public perceives them. This study examines public expectations of scientists in general and climate scientists in the German context. Using a mixed-methods design, we first identified role expectations on social media inductively through qualitative interviews ( N = 33). Building on these insights, we conducted a survey and applied latent profile analysis ( N = 1,096). Findings reveal shared baseline expectations: People expect scientists in general and climate scientists to serve as neutral counterparts to misinformation on social media, yet support for political advocacy differs. While role expectation profiles are largely similar for scientists in general and climate scientists, their relative sizes differ. For climate scientists, the dominant profile is the Science-Policy-Expectations profile, characterized by a strong emphasis on a range of role expectations, including calls for political action. This highlights the nuanced nature of public perceptions of climate scientists and the need to account for audience expectations in digital debates on climate change.