Easy-to-understand shortform science videos can lead people to overestimate their scientific abilities, according to a new study.
14 July 2025
By Emily Reynolds
Presenting complex material clearly is a key part of good science communications: a way for the general public, who may lack the high-level knowledge of experts, to understand and engage with important (or even just interesting) scientific information. With TikTok, Instagram Reels, YouTube, and other platforms, scientists and science communicators have ready-made audiences with whom to share their knowledge.
Simplifying scientific material too much in order to fit the short video format, however, may have unintended consequences. That's according to a new study in Frontiers Psychology, led by the University of Cologne's Sara Salzmann. Her team looks at short, entertaining online science videos, finding that the most easily understood video summaries can lead people to feel more confident in their own ability to evaluate the study themselves, even if they had no specialist knowledge.
Participants were 179 university students, mostly in their mid-20s and from non-psychology disciplines, to avoid specialist knowledge of the topics covered in the study. They were randomly assigned to watch one of two types of animated videos based on real psychology studies: either plain language summaries using everyday language, or scientific abstracts using academic terminology. Half of the participants in each group also watched a short educational video beforehand which explained the 'easiness effect', a common bias where people are more likely to trust information that's easier to understand, as well as overestimate their understanding of the study.
Each participant viewed four videos from their assigned condition, then rated how credible they found the research, how confident they felt in judging its accuracy, and how likely they were to seek more information, comment, or share the video online. By comparing responses between the groups, the researchers aimed to understand whether simplified videos disproportionately inflated people's confidence, and whether the de-biasing video would help to reduce that effect by giving participants context for their self-belief.
The results found that the plain language summaries did lead to a better understanding of scientific content, and were also seen as more credible. There was also evidence of the 'easiness effect', with participants also having greater confidence in their ability to evaluate the study themselves after watching these plain language summaries — regardless of whether or not they had been made aware of the bias beforehand.
Interestingly, however, participants were not more likely to make decisions like sharing content based on plain language summaries. This, the team says, suggests a more general caution about actually acting on scientific information without further input: "making decisions involves a certain level of commitment, which participants might have been hesitant to express," they write.
The study had a few limitations, the first of which is that intentions were self-reported and may not actually reflect real world behaviour. The sample was also undiverse, made up of highly educated young people, and other variables were also unaccounted for: political orientation or prior trust in science and social media weren't explored but may have influenced results. Future research could explore these factors.
Overall, however, the study's results do suggest that short, plain language animated videos may be an incredibly useful tool for disseminating scientific content and enhancing the engagement of the general public. We may need to be cautious too, though: while making science easier to understand can boost trust and accessibility, it may also lead people to overestimate their ability to critically evaluate research, potentially fuelling the spread of misinformation. Going forward, researchers may want to explore what shapes how people respond to scientific content — and to ensure that efforts to make science more accessible don't come at the cost of genuine understanding.
Read the paper in full:
Salzmann, S., Walther, C., & Kaspar, K. (2025). A new dimension of simplified science communication: the easiness effect of science popularization in animated video abstracts. Frontiers in Psychology, 16. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1584695
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