Politicized Scientists: Credibility Cost of Political Expression on Twitter

<jats:p>We study the reputational cost of scientists’ political expression on social media. Twitter data on 98,000 U.S. academics (2016–2022) reveal substantial engagement with politically salient issues, although most posts take no political stance. Experiments with 6,000 U.S. respondents and 135 journalists show that scientists who express political views are rated less credible than politically silent ones, with penalties increasing in the strength of expression and concentrated among ideologically opposed audiences. Both politically salient research content and explicit identity cues trigger these penalties. Surveyed scientists anticipate the penalty — indeed overestimate it — and endorse limiting political expression to their domain of expertise.</jats:p>