A Meta-Analysis Synthesizing the Effects of Three Uncertainty Types in Science Communication

This meta-analysis synthesized 43 empirical articles to summarize the impact of communicating three distinct uncertainty types (i.e., epistemic uncertainty, consensus uncertainty, and technical uncertainty) in science communication. The results revealed divergent effects across these three uncertainty types. Specifically, communicating epistemic uncertainty was found to have a small yet positive effect on credibility perception ( d = 0.09), with a nonsignificant impact on attitudes. Conversely, communicating consensus uncertainty ( d = −0.12) and technical uncertainty ( d = −0.15) demonstrated a slight negative effect on attitudes, without impacting credibility perception. In addition, topic domain, cultural uncertainty avoidance, and text length were important moderators.