Amid calls from scientific leaders for their colleagues to become more effective public communicators, this study examines the objectives that scientists' report drive their public engagement behaviors. We explore how scientists evaluate five specific communication objectives, which include informing the public about science, exciting the public about science, strengthening the public's trust i...

Misinformation can be very difficult to correct and may have lasting effects even after it is discredited. One reason for this persistence is the manner in which people make causal inferences based on available information about a given event or outcome. As a result, false information may continue to influence beliefs and attitudes even after being debunked if it is not replaced by an alternate...

Most people know that the Pacific is the largest ocean on Earth and that Edison invented the light bulb. Our question is whether this knowledge is stable, or if people will incorporate errors into their knowledge bases, even if they have the correct knowledge stored in memory. To test this, we asked participants general-knowledge questions 2 weeks before they read stories that contained errors ...

Social networks are a platform for individuals and organizations to connect with each other inform, advertise, spread ideas, ultimately influence opinions. These platforms have been known propel misinformation. We argue that this could be compounded by the recommender algorithms these use suggest items potentially of interest their users, given biases filter bubbles issues affecting systems. Wh...

The evidence in the demographic and family planning literature of the range and diversity of the barriers to fertility regulation in many developing countries is reviewed in this article from a consumer perspective. Barriers are defined as the constraining factors standing between women and the realistic availability of the technologies and correct information they need in order to decide wheth...

The evidence in the demographic and family planning literature of the range and diversity of the barriers to fertility regulation in many developing countries is reviewed in this article from a consumer perspective. Barriers are defined as the constraining factors standing between women and the realistic availability of the technologies and correct information they need in order to decide wheth...

oday’s interest in a diverse group of scientifically unproven therapies, collectively referred to as alternative or complementary medicine, has brought increased attention to culturally based therapeutic practices, including acupuncture and other aspects of traditional Chinese medicine. Mystic and ancient healing practices are worthy of study, both for their historical interest and because they...

The FCC has proposed that the unassigned frequencies between broadcast TV channels – the TV band “white space” – should be opened on an unlicensed basis to certified devices that could offer a range of wireless services to the public. Access to the vacant TV channels in each market has been the subject of intense lobbying, yet far too many of the arguments against white space devices rely upon ...

Social media enable rapid, peer-to-peer information flow during crisis events, affordances that have both positive and negative consequences. The potential for spreading misinformation is a significant concern. Drawing on an empirical study of information-sharing practices in a crisis-affected community in the Catskill Mountains after Hurricane Irene, this paper describes how an ad hoc group of...

This paper seeks to investigate credibility, misinformation and disinformation as concepts highly correlated to the quality of information sources so as to encourage users to bear them in mind when searching for information via the web. Issues as to how users can make distinction among web information sources when confronting questionable ones are discussed. Exploring within an extensive, but n...