Public trust in scientists is critical to our ability to face societal threats. Here, across five pre-registered studies (N = 2,034), we assessed whether perceptions of scientists’ intellectual humility affect perceived trustworthiness of scientists and their research. In study 1, we found that seeing scientists as higher in intellectual humility was associated with greater perceived trustworthiness of scientists and support for science-based beliefs. We then demonstrated that describing a scientist as high (versus low) in intellectual humility increased perceived trustworthiness of the scientist (studies 2–4), belief in their research (studies 2–4), intentions to follow their research-based recommendations (study 3) and information-seeking behaviour (study 4). We further demonstrated that these effects were not moderated by the scientist’s gender (study 3) or race/ethnicity (study 4). In study 5, we experimentally tested communication approaches that scientists can use to convey intellectual humility. These studies reveal the benefits of seeing scientists as intellectually humble across medical, psychological and climate science topics.

公众对科学家的信任对于我们面对社会威胁的能力至关重要。在这里，在五项预先注册的研究 （N = 2,034） 中，我们评估了对科学家智力谦逊的看法是否会影响科学家及其研究的可信度。在研究 1 中，我们发现认为科学家的智力谦逊程度更高，这与科学家的可信度更高和对基于科学的信念的支持有关。然后，我们证明，将科学家描述为智力谦逊高（而不是低）会增加科学家的可信度（研究 2-4）、对他们研究的信念（研究 2-4）、遵循他们基于研究的建议的意图（研究 3）和寻求信息的行为（研究 4）。我们进一步证明，这些影响不受科学家的性别（研究 3）或种族/民族（研究 4）的调节。在研究 5 中，我们实验测试了科学家可以用来传达智力谦逊的沟通方法。这些研究揭示了将科学家视为在医学、心理学和气候科学主题上智力谦逊的好处。