Trustworthiness of Plain Language Summaries of Scientific Studies

Mark Jonas from Leibniz Institute for Psychology (ZPID) has successfully defended his doctoral thesis on August 16, 2024. His dissertation is titled “Einfach verständlich oder einfach nur unwissenschaftlich? Untersuchungen des Zusammenhangs zwischen ‘Easiness-Effekt’ und ‘Scientificness-Effekt’ im Kontext von Plain Language Summaries psychologischer Forschung” (“Easy to understand or just unscientific? Investigating the relationship between the 'easiness effect' and the 'scientificness effect' in the context of plain language summaries of psychological research”). 

In his work, Mark Jonas looked at how the easiness and scientificness of texts in the context of scientific summaries (plain language summaries) in psychology affect the trust of readers from the general population. He also investigated whether the interaction between easiness and scientificness can influence trust. Finally, in a follow-up study, he investigated the role played by the subjective perception of readers with regard to the positive influence of scientificness on trust.

His work was supervised by Dr. Tom Rosman from the Leibniz Institute for Psychology (ZPID) and Prof. Dr. Michael Schneider, Professor of Educational Psychology at the Trier University.

Warmest congratulations from the ZPID!