In order to investigate and further develop the effectiveness and quality of science communication, impact research is conducted at the Research Center. Methodologically, rhetorical impact research is evidence-based and builds on psychology and empirical social research, which is why cooperation with the Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmedien (IWM) and the LEAD research network is of central importance here. The aim is to formulate and review transparent and comprehensible success criteria for communicative interventions: What criteria can we use to speak of the "success" of science communication? Which factors increase and which reduce its probability? How can audiences be optimally differentiated? Which topics move which audience? How can the heterogeneity of different audiences be taken into account in terms of communication strategy?
Evidence-based research into such questions forms an important basis for progress in the development of rhetorical concepts and theories: Prospectively, this creates the possibility of identifying and interdisciplinarily elaborating important building blocks of an empirically supported, comprehensive theory of persuasive and invitational communicative processes with a focus on knowledge-oriented interactions.
