Van Antwerpen, N.Green, E.B.Sturman, D.Searston, R.A.2025-05-292025-05-292025Scientific Reports, 2025; 15(1):11869-1-11869-162045-23222045-2322https://hdl.handle.net/2440/144789Published online: 07 April 2025Media portrayals of scientific disagreements can blur distinctions between experts and non-experts, or include disagreements from vested individuals, potentially undermining trust in science and belief in scientific claims. We investigated how disagreeing sources’ expertise and conflicting interests impact trust in scientific experts and belief in their claims, and whether scientific literacy moderates these effects. Across three, 2 × 2 factorial experiments with a student (N = 105) online (N = 110), and general Australian sample (N = 105), participants read articles describing a scientific claim followed by a disagreeing source whose subject-matter expertise (present/absent) and vested interest (present/ absent) were manipulated. Participants in all samples judged the original scientific expert as more trustworthy and their claims more believable when the disagreeing source lacked relevant subjectmatter expertise. Among student participants, conflicts of interest also impacted belief in scientific claims (but not trust in the scientist), and scientific literacy enhanced sensitivity to expertise and conflict, however, the other samples were largely insensitive to vested interests, and scientific literacy had varied effects in these samples. Our results show disagreement in the news, even from questionable sources, can sway evaluations of scientific claims and scientists, and highlight the value of literacy-based interventions in science communication.en© Crown 2025. Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.Trust in science; Trust in experts; Science communication; Scientific disagreement; Scientific literacyHumansDissent and DisputesTrustScienceConflict of InterestAdultAustraliaFemaleMaleYoung AdultLiteracyJournal article10.1038/s41598-025-96333-8734349Van Antwerpen, N. [0000-0002-1886-4603]Sturman, D. [0000-0002-5025-598X]Searston, R.A. [0000-0001-7295-8021]