Academics' Attitudes Toward Engaging in Public Discussions: Experimental Evidence on the Impact of Engagement Conditions.

ABSTRACT: Growing demands and expectations on the side of policy makers and the public have changed the conditions for academics' engagement in public discussions. At the same time, risks related to this engagement for the professional and even private lives of academics have become apparent. Conducting a survey experiment among 4091 tenured professors in Germany, we study how these conditions causally affect academics' attitudes toward engaging. Consistent with the crowding-out of intrinsic motivation, we find less-positive attitudes when emphasizing demands for engagement by public authorities and public expectations toward science's societal relevance. Effects are particularly strong among professors endorsing science-society relations. Moreover, effects are similar when highlighting risks associ

SUBMITTER: Puttmann V 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9734336 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature