| Seminar für Medien- und Kommunikationswissenschaft

Successful doctorate for Frederike Taubert

On 19 August, 2025, Frederike Taubert successfully defended her dissertation entitled "A double-edged sword - The role of physicians in spreading and countering vaccine-related conspiracy narratives." (supervisor: Prof Dr. Cornelia Betsch) at the Faculty of Philosophy. Additional reviewers wer Jun.-Prof. Dr. Fabian Prochazka and Prof. Dr. Kai Sassenberg (Leibniz Institute of Psychology, Trier).

4 people on a wooden staircase
From left to right: Eva Thomm, Fabian Prochazka, Frederike Taubert, Cornelia Betsch

Frederike Taubert studied psychology at the University of Erfurt. Since 2021, she has been a research associate in the JITSUVAX project at the Chair of Health Communication in the Department of Media and Communication Studies. She is also a member of the Institute for Planetary Health Behaviour and affiliated with the Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine in Hamburg.

Physicians enjoy a high level of public trust - a powerful lever in vaccination communication, but also a risk: if misinformation or conspiracy narratives are spread from this source, they can be particularly persuasive. It is precisely this "double edge" that is at the centre of her dissertation. In five papers, Taubert examines how physicians' beliefs and communication influence vaccination decisions – and how empathy-based interventions can help to address misinformation.

We warmly congratulate Frederike Taubert on her successful doctorate! With this work, she is making an important contribution to evidence-based vaccination communication – ranging from the analysis of medical influence factors to concrete, scalable interventions for practice and training.

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