In this research project we examined how different forms of presenting factual information influenced people’s knowledge about and attitudes toward foxes. In particular, the project dealt with the impact of different forms of visual and textual representations. It examined whether emotionalization through visual methods has a similar effect as emotionalization mediated by textual representations.

The research question of this project was investigated by surveys of a representative sample. For this purpose, we made use of the Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP), which is located at the German Institute for Economic Research, and which provides representative repetitive surveys of German private households. Specifically, the investigations took place within the "SOEP Innovation Sample". We captured the knowledge and the attitudes of the participants in a longitudinal study with two measurement points. Between the first and the second measurement, the participants of different examination conditions received different information material in which the emotionalization through visual and textual representations was systematically varied. In addition, we examined the extent to which the results were influenced by the age or educational background of the recipients.

In addition to the German Institute for Economic Research, the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research was another partner in the project, which provided expertise in the presentation of results from biodiversity research. From the results of these studies, we derived recommendations for successful strategies of science communication on the results of scientific research.