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August 17, 2025

The Credibility Costs of Activist Self-Presentation for Climate Scientists: Evidence from a Preregistered Experiment in France

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Authors

LCLaurent CordonierCentre National de la Recherche ScientifiqueAMAntoine MarieInstitut d'Etudes Politiques de ParisFCFlorian CafieroUniversité Paris Sciences et Lettres

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Implication

Experimental evidence shows activist identity reduces trust in climate scientists, highlighting credibility costs.

Key Points

  • Activist self-presentation led to reduced trust and perceived reliability among participants and a loss of credibility.
  • Participants viewed the climatologist as less reliable when framed as an activist, with lower trust ratings observed.
  • This preregistered experiment involved 4,000 French participants engaging with two versions of a newspaper article.
  • Findings suggest climate scientists face credibility costs when adopting activist roles in their communication.

Cite This Study

Cordonier et al. (2025) studied this question.

synapsesocial.com/papers/68a36a3f0a429f797332e7bchttps://doi.org/10.31219/osf.io/4vthg_v1
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Also Consider

Synapse has enriched 5 closely related papers on similar clinical questions. Consider them for comparative context:

  1. 1Navigating the Credibility Risks of Environmental Scientists’ Activism2025 · 1 citations
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  4. 4Scientists as activists: An ethnography of the ‘critical moments’ in scientists’ transition to climate activism2026 · 4 citations
  5. 5Between two worlds: the scientist’s dilemma in climate activism2024 · 16 citations