About the project

The current pandemic crisis has exposed the weaknesses of our globalized era, heavily influenced by social media platforms, in which science denialism and populism have negative effects on society and democracy. Matrix aims to study the links between populist and science denial attitudes and their determinants. Populism is based on the dual belief that the common sense of the people is superior to the decision-making processes of elites and that the various elites who make decisions are disconnected from the people or only care about their own interests. Therefore, if there are strong populist feelings among the population, it is very likely that there will also be a high degree of distrust of elites.

Matrix assumes that the Covid-19 pandemic is exceptional not only for its unprecedented societal effect, but also for clearly exposing the potential dangers of rejecting scientific evidence and scientists. The nature of the crisis has reinforced the importance of experts and science in general, which could thus counter the recent increase in populist and science-denying attitudes, which have been largely normalized due to social media. We know that populism can harm science, but can science harm populism, or at least some of its current forms? Matrix aims to understand the information processing mechanisms that individuals use to justify accepting or rejecting science recommendations in times of uncertainty caused by a global pandemic crisis.

The Matrix project focuses on the anti-elitism, anti-establishment and anti-intellectualism dimensions of populism. Denialism is related to attitudes towards science and is substantiated in some populist narratives and attitudes, eg the denialism of climate change or the pandemic crisis by far-right populists; however, to date denialism has not been integrated into existing repertoires of populist attitudes. It is, therefore, necessary to investigate whether denialism is an attitude that combined with other dimensions of populism results in specific forms of populism (eg extreme right or radical right), or whether it can be conceived as a constitutive characteristic of populism in itself. There are confirmed similarities between the information processing mechanisms of both populist and denialist attitudes, eg a mix of selective attention and confirmation bias together with the construction of reassuring narratives that simplify problems.