Scientists and citizens are more persuasive than government and industry in mobilizing action, study finds

When it comes to solving big national problems, Americans don't wait for the government or big companies to lead — they look to scientists and their neighbors instead. That's the key finding from a new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Researchers at Boston College and Princeton University ran four separate experiments with roughly 55,000 people to figure out who convinces Americans to take action on important issues. They tested climate policies, electric vehicles, vaccines, artificial intelligence rules, and other topics. In each case, people were most moved to act when they learned that both scientists and ordinary citizens supported a solution.

"What surprised us was how consistently the combined voice of scientists and ordinary citizens mattered across issues and partisans, even when governments and companies opposed action," said Gregg Sparkman, an assistant professor of psychology and neuroscience at Boston College who helped lead the study.

The researchers found that people were willing to support policies, buy certain products, donate money to nonprofits, and share messages online when they saw that experts and fellow citizens agreed on a path forward. Notably, opposition from powerful institutions like government agencies or big companies did not stop people from acting.

"When people saw that scientists and ordinary citizens endorsed solutions, they were still willing to act on that joint advice — including by donating money to a nonprofit and engaging with real content on social media," said Anandita Sabherwal, the study's lead author and a postdoctoral researcher at both Princeton and Boston College.

The team tested their ideas in real-world settings, too. In one test, people were given the chance to donate part of a bonus to a data privacy nonprofit. In another, they saw a Facebook ad about energy-saving appliances. In both cases, the alignment between scientists and everyday people made a difference.

Sabherwal said the findings offer a hopeful message: even when top leadership fails to act, ordinary people still have power.

"Institutional failure does not have to lead to public paralysis," Sabherwal said. "Even when leadership from the top is missing, agreement between experts and citizens can still help create momentum."

The researchers now plan to test whether the same pattern holds in countries where people's trust in government, scientists, and fellow citizens looks different than it does in the United States.