ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Commun.
Sec. Science and Environmental Communication
Volume 10 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fcomm.2025.1643081
This article is part of the Research TopicThe Erosion of Trust in the 21st Century: Origins, Implications, and SolutionsView all 12 articles
Trust in Science: A Critical Review of the Complex Interactions between Credibility and Trust Associated with Conservation Science
Provisionally accepted
- 1Tarleton State University, Stephenville, United States
- 2Department of Wildlife and Natural Resources, Tarleton State University, Texas, United States
- 3Department of Rangeland, Wildlife and Fisheries Management, Texas, United States
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The credibility enjoyed by natural science and scientists during most of the 20th Century has been challenged in the 21st Century. Philosophers of science have noted waning trust in science as an appropriate foundation for sociopolitical decisions. Conservation science literature explores credibility-trust relationships to understand how these interactions contribute to or detract from scientific legitimacy. We conducted a content analysis of professional literature to determine how credibility was framed in conservation science as it relates to trust. We discovered that the literature has limited recognition of credibility's multidimensionality and the emergent nature of credibility and trust. Both were framed as static entities, thereby restricting understanding that these constructs are co-created within each situation to create a set of expectations that, when met, increases message effectiveness and enhances trust. Scientists' credibility is an essential precursor (i.e. antecedent) to establishing trust. We suggest that conservation scientists could more effectively enhance their credibility through the recognition that it develops along the dimensions of expertise, goodwill, and honesty and that trust involves mutual vulnerability. Armed with a more nuanced understanding of credibility's multidimensionality and an increased understanding that credibility and trust interactions are sociopolitical processes, conservation scientists are enabled to deconstruct existing terminologies and reframe them in ways that better meet and fulfill stakeholders' expectations to enhance trust and mitigate its erosion.
Keywords: Communication, conservation science, Content Analysis, credibility, Trust
Received: 07 Jun 2025; Accepted: 18 Aug 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Horton, Lane and Peterson. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Cristi Choat Horton, Tarleton State University, Stephenville, United States
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