Sabina Mihelj presented research on trust in experts during the COVID-19 pandemic

Sabina Mihelj delivered a presentation at the Virtual Scientific Conference organised by PERITIA (Policy, Expertise, and Trust), an EU-funded project investigating public trust in expertise. Held on 18-19 March, the theme of the conference was ‘Trust in Expertise in a Changing Media Landscape’. The paper, co-authored with Katherine Kondor and Václav Štětka, was entitled “Why do people trust experts, and how does their trust affect information-seeking behaviour? A four-country audience study of trust and media use during the COVID-19 pandemic.” It presented the results of analysis of trust in experts, drawing on 120 interviews and media diaries conducted at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, and Serbia. The presentation drew much interest from those in the audience, particularly the finding that people value the expertise of those they know personally, often above that of more well-known experts.