Last Saturday, the Botanical Garden of the University of Valencia hosted around 120 people to take part in the public consultation for the CONFIDES project (Public perception and post-COVID-19 science in Spain: trust and disinformation regarding vaccines, climate change, and artificial intelligence)
Last Saturday, the Botanical Garden of the University of Valencia hosted around 120 people who took part in the public consultation for the CONFIDES project (Public Perception and Post-COVID-19 Science in Spain: Trust and Disinformation in Vaccines, Climate Change, and Artificial Intelligence). The activity invited participants to reflect on and discuss how we receive and perceive information on scientific topics in three highly relevant areas: artificial intelligence, vaccines, and climate change.
Seated at tables of eight or nine people and guided by a moderator, participants shared their experiences and opinions based on questions such as 'Have you ever received false information about climate change?' or 'When you read news about artificial intelligence, do you think it will be a positive technology for people?' These questions served as a starting point for the public to express doubts, concerns, and expectations regarding science communication.
The aim of this public consultation was to understand how citizens interpret scientific information and how much trust they place in different sources, in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic. As Carolina Moreno, lead researcher of ScienceFlows, reminded participants at the start of the citizen discussions: 'All opinions are welcome, because what we’re trying to assess is how society’s trust in scientific information has evolved since the pandemic'.
The aim of this public consultation was to understand how citizens interpret scientific information and how much trust they place in different sources, in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic
To ensure a diverse sample, participants were selected from over 250 volunteers who had signed up for the event, including a percentage who had already taken part in the CONCISE public consultation held in 2019 as part of another European project. The variety of profiles in terms of age, education, and background allowed for a wide range of perspectives that enriched the citizen debates.
The 45 hours of recorded debates will now serve the research team to delve deeper into key issues, such as which channels and sources of information are perceived as most trustworthy by the public, or what arguments are used by those who deny the existence of climate change and the effectiveness of vaccines. The analysis of the transcriptions—using qualitative techniques and linguistic software—will also make it possible to develop recommendations and guidelines to improve science communication, with the goal of ensuring that information reaches society in a clearer, more accurate, and more useful way.
About CONFIDES project
The CONFIDES project (Public Perception and Post-COVID-19 Science in Spain: Trust and Disinformation in Vaccines, Climate Change, and Artificial Intelligence) is funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities through the State Research Agency, with a budget of €112,500.
It is led by the University of Valencia and involves the participation of ESIC Valencia, the Carlos III University of Madrid, and Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona. In addition, it builds on the European CONCISE project, which in 2019 organized five citizen consultations in different European countries with the participation of over 500 people.
