Articles | Volume 9, issue 1
https://doi.org/10.5194/gc-9-69-2026
https://doi.org/10.5194/gc-9-69-2026
Research article
 | 
12 Jan 2026
Research article |  | 12 Jan 2026

The effect of advocacy on perceived credibility of climate scientists in a Dutch text on greening of gardens

Erik van Sebille, Celine Weel, Rens Vliegenthart, and Mark Bos

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Cited articles

Attari, S. Z., Krantz, D. H., and Weber, E. U.: Statements about climate researchers' carbon footprints affect their credibility and the impact of their advice, Climatic Change, 138, 325–338, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-016-1713-2, 2016. 
Attari, S. Z., Krantz, D. H., and Weber, E. U.: Climate change communicators' carbon footprints affect their audience's policy support, Climatic Change, 154, 529–545, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-019-02463-0, 2019. 
Beall, L., Myers, T. A., Kotcher, J. E., Vraga, E. K., and Maibach, E. W.: Controversy matters: Impacts of topic and solution controversy on the perceived credibility of a scientist who advocates, PLOS ONE, 12, e0187511, https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0187511, 2017. 
Besley, J. and Dudo, A.: Scientists' Views about Public Engagement and Science Communication in the Context of Climate Change, in: Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Climate Science, Oxford University Press, https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780190228620.013.380, 2017. 
Borah, P.: Comparing Visual Framing in Newspapers: Hurricane Katrina versus Tsunami, Newspaper Research Journal, 30, 50–57, https://doi.org/10.1177/073953290903000106, 2009. 
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Short summary
Many climate scientists intuitively fear their credibility decreases when they engage in advocacy. We find that the opposite is the case. By surveying almost 1000 Dutch adults, we found that the credibility of a fictional climate scientists who wrote an article about the greening of gardens was higher when that text included advocacy statements, compared to when it was neutral. This is because personalization increases the goodwill of readers for the academic who writes a text.
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