Examining the Relationship Between “Easiness Effect” and “Scientificness Effect” in the Context of Lay Friendly Research Summaries - Preregistration of Hypotheses & Design

Previous studies have already demonstrated that both the perceived easiness of a text (“easiness effect”, Scharrer et al., 2012; 2013) as well as its perceived scientificness (“scientificness effect”, Bromme et al., 2015; Thomm & Bromme, 2012) influence readers’ judgments of text trustworthiness. Yet up until this point, studies have mostly examined these two effects separately and no specific focus has been applied to their interaction in the context of plain language summaries (PLS) of psychological research. To investigate their potential interaction, we will conduct a study in which participants will read four short research summaries that are systematically varied in terms of their easiness (high vs. low) as well as their scientificness (high vs. low). After each text, readers will provide ratings of text and author trustworthiness (i.e rated expertise, integrity and benevolence). Additionally, data on participants' individual epistemic justification beliefs and their need for cognitive closure (NCC) will be collected. The effects of easiness, scientificness and their interaction on trust as well as the influence of justification beliefs and NCC on trust will be analyzed via mixed models. unknown other