Scientists could win back trust lost during the COVID-19 pandemic if they just showed a little intellectual humility, according to a study published Monday in Nature Human Behavior.

It's no secret that scientists -- and the science generally -- took a hit during the health crisis. Public confidence in scientists fell from 87 percent in April 2000 to a low of 73 percent in October 2023, according to survey data from the Pew Research Center. And the latest Pew data released last week suggests it will be an uphill battle to regain what was lost, with confidence in scientists only rebounding three percentage points, to 76 percent in a poll from October.

The new study in Nature Human Behavior may guide the way forward, though. The study encompasses five smaller studies probing the perceptions of scientists' trustworthiness, which previous research has linked to willingness to follow research-based recommendations.

"These are anxiety-provoking times for people, and they feel uncertain about who to trust and which recommendations to follow," said study co-author Karina Schumann, a psychology professor at the University of Pittsburgh. "We wanted to know what can help people feel more confident putting their faith in scientists working to find solutions to some of the complex global challenges we are facing."

Schumann and her colleagues homed in on the role of intellectual humility. Unlike general humility, intellectual humility focuses on the limitations of one's knowledge. Specifically, a scientist with high intellectual humility would show a willingness to admit gaps in their knowledge, listen to input from others, and update their views based on new evidence. These characteristics may be viewed by the public as particularly critical among scientists, given that science is rife with uncertainties and lacks complete and unequivocal conclusions, especially from individual studies.