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. 2023 May 17;20(10):5842.
doi: 10.3390/ijerph20105842.

The Influence of News Consumption Habits and Dispositional Traits on Trust in Medical Scientists

Meng Zhen Larsen  1   2 , Michael R Haupt  1   3 , Tiana McMann  1   2   4 , Raphael E Cuomo  1   5 , Tim K Mackey  1   2   4
Affiliations

The Influence of News Consumption Habits and Dispositional Traits on Trust in Medical Scientists

Meng Zhen Larsen et al. Int J Environ Res Public Health. .

Abstract

Public trust in medical institutions is essential for ensuring compliance with medical directives. However, the politicization of public health issues and the polarized nature of major news outlets suggest that partisanship and news consumption habits can influence medical trust. This study employed a survey with 858 participants and used regression analysis to assesses how news consumption habits and information assessment traits (IATs) influence trust in medical scientists. IATs included were conscientiousness, openness, need for cognitive closure (NFCC), and cognitive reflective thinking (CRT). News sources were classified on the basis of factuality and political bias. Initially, readership of liberally biased news was positively associated with medical trust (p < 0.05). However, this association disappeared when controlling for the news source's factuality (p = 0.28), while CRT (p < 0.05) was positively associated with medical trust. When controlling for conservatively biased news sources, factuality of the news source (p < 0.05) and NFCC (p < 0.05) were positively associated with medical trust. While partisan media bias may influence medical trust, these results suggest that those who have higher abilities to assess information and who prefer more credible news sources have a greater trust in medical scientists.

Keywords: dispositional traits; misinformation; news consumption habits; public health; trust in medical institutions.

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Conflict of interest statement

M.Z.L., T.M. and T.K.M. are also employees of the startup company S-3 Research LLC. S-3 Research is a startup funded and currently supported by the National Institutes of Health—National Institute on Drug Abuse through a Small Business Innovation and Research contract for opioid-related social media research and technology commercialization. The company provided no funding or specific support for this study and was not commissioned in any way. The authors declare no other conflict of interest associated with this manuscript.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Effect of factuality on medical trust.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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