What was part of the everyday life of all scientists two years ago is now a cause for special joy: The IWM was represented by a total of seven people at the Media Psychology in Aachen last week. Lara Wolfers, Stefanie Ritz, Franziska Gaiser, Dr. Christine Anderl and Prof. Dr. Sonja Utz from the junior research group Social Media presented their research results on-site at the poster sessions, while Fritz Becker from the lab Knowledge Exchange participated remotely.

In addition, Dr. Dominik Neumann presented his new research project on the topic of "Morality in Social Media" in a so-called position paper. The project aims to investigate how people construct their moral foundations and what role information and opinions conveyed via social media play in this process. "We know quite a lot about how information is spread on social media and what factors contribute to a topic going viral. However, we know much less about which cognitive processes take place inside the individual when, for example, posts are read in which moral questions play a role," says Dr. Dominik Neumann about the rationale behind his project.

Should researchers be able to successfully gain insights into how people process information and statements shared via social media, new opportunities for mediation could be unlocked: instead of contributing to the polarisation of a topic, posts containing moral issues could be designed to keep avenues for exchange and discussion open. Following the lecture, the international audience, which participated both on-site and via digital means, engaged in a lively discussion on the topic. Prof. Dr. Sonja Utz was pleased about her first on-site conference in a long time. Summing up the experience, she said "it was great to finally meet many colleagues again in presence and to exchange ideas in person. An all-around successful event."

Scientific findings have increasingly become the focus of public interest. Behind supposedly simple results are usually complex research processes that are often difficult for non-professionals to comprehend. Nevertheless, an understanding of research processes is vital for an accurate interpretation of their results. So how can scientific research processes be communicated better? This is the question that Hannah Greving and Joachim Kimmerle from the Knowledge Construction Lab at the IWM are investigating in their sub-project "VideT: Fragility and Credibility of Scientific Findings", which is part of the interdisciplinary joint project "VideT: Communicating the Research Process - a Video-based Transfer Tool for Pupils."

"The overall project aims to develop and create videos that can be used to communicate scientific research processes in student labs and schools," says Hannah Greving about the new project. The IWM's focus is primarily on researching the effects of these videos. "At the IWM, we are taking a closer look at how different video formats and thematic orientations of the videos affect the perception of the fragility of scientific findings as well as the credibility of the researchers."

The interdisciplinary project is funded over a period of three years by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research and combines different research perspectives: In addition to the IWM, the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research (IZW) in Berlin, the Leibniz Institute for Science and Mathematics Education (IPN) in Kiel, the Ruhr University Bochum (RUB) and the Leibniz University Hannover (LUH) are involved as collaborating partners.

Despite a rise in Covid-19 cases, the number of daily administered vaccinations is declining because many people are still sceptical about immunisation. One factor that can lead to such a vaccine refusal is the influence of conspiracy theories about Covid-19 vaccines, which are circulating on social media. In cooperation with the University of Queensland (Australia), IWM researchers were, for the first time, able to gain insights into how the negative influence of conspiracy theories on vaccination intentions could be reduced. "The crucial factor is the social environment," says project leader Dr Kevin Winter, research associate in the Social Processes lab at the IWM. If friends and family signal positive attitudes and expectations, even people who are otherwise sceptical about vaccinations are more willing to get vaccinated.

Having said that, even a conducive social environment will most likely not be able to convince everyone. In assessing the study results, Winter acknowledges that "people who fundamentally reject vaccinations or are already deeply immersed in a conspiratorial worldview are probably difficult to reach.” Nevertheless, talking to acquaintances and relatives who express such concerns at an early stage could not only counteract the spread of conspiracy theories but also increase their willingness to get vaccinated.

You can find more information in the press release.

As of 1 July, companies in Germany no longer have to offer a remote working option, but many employees have mixed feelings when thinking about returning to the office. IWM researchers PD Dr. Annika Scholl and Prof. Dr. Kai Sassenberg look at this transition from a psychological perspective.

While some are looking forward to more opportunities for personal exchange and less screen time, others fear the loss of working independently. In addition, people and companies have changed their way of working in the pandemic. "The sum of these changes suggests that the return may not naturally be smooth. If employees expect that everything will be the same as it was before the pandemic, unpleasant surprises and disappointments can arise," says Prof. Dr. Kai Sassenberg.

Together with PD Dr. Annika Scholl, he has published an article on this topic in the online magazine wissensdialoge.de, of which Scholl is the managing editor and co-founder. The most important thing for the two researchers is a good preparation of the transition phase. "Workshops or events can make the return to the office meaningful. Explicit and revisable agreements also help to avoid conflicts and disappointments when it comes to new norms such as not shaking hands anymore," recommends Annika Scholl. Nevertheless, the end of remote work will not go along with returning to the old normality. To cope well with this situation, people need one thing above all: time to get back together.

After its early exit from the 2018 FIFA World Cup, Germany as a football nation could face the next disappointment at the UEFA Euro 2020. In this case, researchers from the IWM and the University of Tübingen can offer some tips for crisis communication: bad news on social media elicits fewer angry reactions by fans when posted by the players.

After the 2018 FIFA World Cup exit, the researchers investigated how fans reacted to Facebook posts by the DFB team and the individual players Manuel Neuer and Thomas Müller. "Although Neuer and the DFB posted an identical statement after the defeat, Neuer received significantly fewer angry emojis than the DFB team. Müller received fewer negative reactions than the team, but more than Neuer," said the head of the study Prof. Dr. Sonja Utz.

The fact that the players were rated more positively by the fans than the team was also reflected in additionally collected questionnaire data. This can be explained by the so-called parasocial relationships between fans and football players. This term refers to people's relationship with media personalities, such as fans with their football idols. The closer the fan-player relationship is in good times, the milder the fans' reaction after a lost game. Nevertheless, no matter how good the crisis communication is, a game won is always the better option.

During the pandemic, many decisions with far-reaching consequences had to be made. Algorithms could have helped in making these. Researchers at the IWM in collaboration with the German University of Freiburg have now discovered that citizens generally do not object to the use of algorithm-based advice by those in responsible positions - as long as a human is the final decision-maker.

Various COVID-19-related decision scenarios were presented to the study participants. The distribution of ventilators among COVID-19 patients was considered the most morality-laden scenario. Decisions about financial support for suffering businesses or curfew rules for members of risk groups were presumed less severe and therefore less moral-laden. The result: In general, people had positive attitudes towards human-algorithm teaming – as long as a human has the final say.

Another important insight arose from the various perspectives the study participants took. They either had to imagine themselves in the role of the decision-maker or the person affected by the decision. For the most moral-laden scenario, a clear effect could be seen. “In the role of the physician, the study participants were more willing to get an initial assessment from an algorithm than when they imagined being the patient about whom the decision was being made,” said Prof. Dr. Sonja Utz. The IWM researcher is heading the study as part of the Tübingen Excellence Cluster “Machine Learning: New Perspectives for the Sciences.”

For more information, please refer to our press release.

Virtual and digital aspects are playing an increasingly important role for museums, as well. For example, materials scientists often no longer work on real samples, but are much more concerned with digital image data output from high-precision measuring instruments. New exhibition and education formats for digital exhibits are therefore now the subject of a scientific cooperation among the IWM, the German Maritime Museum - Leibniz Institute of Maritime History (DSM), and the University of Bremen.

In the joint project entitled "Digital Materialities. Virtual and Analogue Forms of Exhibition," selected objects from the DSM collection will be recorded using state-of-the-art measuring technology such as CT scanners and spectrographs and thus made visible and tangible in a new way. An image of a submarine model, for example, has already been taken with a 3D x-ray microscope in order to investigate which aspects of an object can only be experienced and analyzed through digitization. The cognitive process between observer, object, and the object's "digital twin" is also explored in the lab and museum context.

The project’s findings will be highly transferable for similar interdisciplinary projects and for experimental applications in standard exhibitions. A travelling exhibition with both analog and digital formats is planned starting in 2024.

The spread of the Corona virus and the resulting restrictions led to an increased awareness and reporting on conspiracy theories. Scientists from the IWM in Tübingen in collaboration with the University of Copenhagen investigated the influence these theories have on society and the fight against the corona virus.

In this recently published study, the researchers found that even confronting people with conspiracy theories can have negative societal consequences: Trust in state institutions and the support of governmental measures declines, as does the adaptation of physical distancing. "Remarkable here was that the effects were not only found in subjects who already believed in conspiracy theories, but also in other subjects, only after reading about a fictitious conspiracy theory," explained the initiator of the study Lotte Pummerer, who is a research associate in the Social Processes lab at the IWM.

Link to study: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/19485506211000217

Researching scientific topics on the internet, one often encounters contradictory information due to developing science, lack of quality control of online media or even misinformation. Especially for laypersons who do not have access to the necessary prior knowledge, it is often difficult to understand and evaluate contradictory claims. 

In his dissertation, Steffen Gottschling, who is a research associate in the Multimodal Interaction lab at the IWM, investigated how laypersons can be supported in evaluating information and which role the perceived trustworthiness of sources plays in this process. The research results show: The more credible a source, the greater the agreement with its claims. "As there is a huge amount of conflicting information and misinformation circulating on the internet, source evaluation is an increasingly important skill for scientific literacy and communication," explained Steffen Gottschling after his successful dissertation defense on March 12, 2021.

What factors lead to successful education in a digital world and how can the quality of teaching be ensured? These questions were the focus of this year's educational research conference, which was held by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and took place on March 9 and 10. The online event was attended by Dr. Anne Thillosen and Marcel Capparozza, two IWM researchers representing the meta project “Digitisation in the Fields of Education" (Digi-EBF).

In collaboration with researchers from the University of Duisburg-Essen and from projects of the BMBF funding line “Digitisation in Education”, the two IWM scientists organised and led a forum on the topic of "Challenges and Perspectives of Teacher Education in a Digitally Shaped World”, in which participants from academia and practice discussed issues related to the education and training of teachers.

Teacher training courses which had to be designed and offered as online events on very short notice in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic were a topic of discussion. "All participants agreed that these formats have a lot of potential that must also be used in the future. At the same time, little is known about the conception of online formats in teacher training courses from an empirical perspective”, said Marcel Capparozza, who is conducting research at IWM as part of the meta project on digitisation in teacher education.

Dr. Anne Thillosen, scientific head of of the meta project at the IWM, discussed with another group the hypothesis that media didactics should be a mandatory part of teacher education. Despite the participants' fundamental agreement with this idea, it quickly became apparent in the discussion that opinions differed widely as to which competencies prospective teachers or students should possess. "That's exactly why this discussion is so important. And that's exactly what we want to contribute with the IWM online platform e-teaching.org and its associated dialogue and expert forums”, said Anne Thillosen.

Creating optimal research conditions to combat widespread diseases is a key concern of the German Centers for Health Research funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). The University Hospital and the Medical Faculty of the University of Tübingen, together with other Tübingen cooperation partners, are going to take on the establishment of the new German Center for Mental Health. That was announced yesterday by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF).

As part of the research network, the IWM will also contribute to expand psychotherapy research and provide innovative ways to communicate new research findings to the public. After all, digital media are already applied in different parts of the healthcare sector: "They can provide in-depth training for physicians and therapists or support the doctor-patient relationship”, explained Prof. Dr. Ulrike Cress, Executive Director at the IWM. "We look forward to working with the other research partners to use the potential of knowledge media across the spectrum of mental health and therapies”, she stated.

In the past, there have already been numerous cooperation projects with the University Hospital Tübingen, for example as part of the Leibniz Science Campus Tübingen (WCT) as well as other BMBF- and DFG-funded projects. Among other projects, computer interfaces have been developed for a variety of medical purposes and studied with respect to doctor-patient communication, interprofessional collaboration in health care, and medical education. In addition, the use of social networks to educate patients and VR interfaces that can be used in therapies were explored.

Over the next six months, the cooperation partners involved will develop implementation concepts. The Federal Ministry of Research stated that the funding phase, in which the federal and state governments participate, will then begin.

In many medical situations, there is not just one possible treatment method from a scientific point of view. Instead, there are several possibilities. Physicians must then work together with their patients to find the best solution, taking into account the patients’ personal wishes and preferences. This process is called Shared Decision Making (SDM) and can be very challenging for both parties.

In her dissertation, which she successfully defended on January 20, 2021, Marie Eggeling researched which factors play a role in SDM and which measures could help to improve participatory decision making. In four experimental studies, she examined both formal and substantive aspects of decision aids, patient-physician communication, and the utility of narrated patient experiences for health care professionals. "In the process, we found that patient safety and satisfaction improved with the use of decision support tools, while the communication of factual information in particular played a key role," Eggeling stated. In addition, physician recommendations also strongly influenced participants' decisions, but did not increase decision confidence. "Our results suggest that both direct patient support, for example in the form of decision aids, and training of healthcare professionals may be helpful to optimally support patients in decision making in the future," she said following her successful dissertation defense.

To successfully convey knowledge, textbooks and digital learning environments often present complex subject matter using text and pictures. While the effectiveness of text-picture combinations is already well researched, little is known about how these two elements are processed. Dr. Anne Schüler, deputy head of the Multiple Representations lab at the Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmedien, is addressing this research gap in a new project funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG). The project was launched in January.

Empirical research shows that the combination of text and pictures often leads to better learning results than if the information is presented only as a text. The explanation given is that learners actively select relevant pieces of information and link them mentally. However, previous research findings suggest that additional cognitive processes such as the validation and reactivation of information could play a key role when learning with text-picture combinations. The validation mechanism checks whether the link between information presented in the text and picture makes sense based on general knowledge and the specific context, while in contrast, the reactivation mechanism reactivates information that is no longer currently in the working memory but is necessary to establish connections. Typically, these two cognitive processes are passive, that is, they occur automatically. Dr. Anne Schüler’s research team therefore aims to discover whether these kinds of automatic reactivation and validation processes also take place when learning with text-picture combinations.