Epistemic Authority in Communication Effects on Memory: Creating Shared Reality with Experts on the Topic

In times of widespread science skepticism, it is important to understand when and how lay people draw on experts’ opinions to form judgments. We examined whether participants are more likely to create a shared reality with a communication partner having high epistemic authority than with audiences having lower epistemic authority. In Experiment 1, participants described an ambiguously presented target person to a lay audience or an expert...