Trust in science and experts during COVID-19 in Italy

Nuffield Fellows Ridhi Kashyap and Valentina Rotondi with co-author Pietro Battiston examine the changing pattern of trust in experts and science in Italy during the pandemic using Twitter and online survey data.

They find that better knowledge and more support of containment measures were positively associated with trust in science and public health experts. Those who gave no greater - or even lower - importance to the expert source of information were also more likely to have incorrect beliefs about COVID-19.

Ridhi, Valentina and Pietro summarised their findings on the Oxford Science Blog ('COVID-19: Inside the info wars', 4 March 2021). 

(Pietro Battiston, Ridhi Kashyap, Valentina Rotondi, 'Reliance on scientists and experts during an epidemic: Evidence from the COVID-19 outbreak in Italy'. Published in SSM - Population Health 13:100721, doi:10.1016/j.ssmph.2020.100721)