Communicating the consensus on climate change to college biology majors: The importance of preaching to the choir

Sloane, Jeremy D.; Wiles, Jason R.

doi:10.1002/ece3.5960

Cited by 7 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 23 publications

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“…Finally, our participants' increased knowledge about the scientific consensus on GM food and vaccination could have motivated them to discuss it with their peers. It has been shown that the more people know about the scientific consensus on global warming, the more likely they are to discuss it with their peers, leading to a "proclimate social feedback loop" [Goldberg et al, 2019, p. 1; see also Sloane and Wiles, 2020]. Even though the present study did not measure participants' sharing behaviors after the experiment, we strongly encourage future research to do so as it is an important -alas neglected -dimension of science communication.…”

Section: Limitationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Are science festivals a good place to discuss heated topics?

Altay¹,

Lakhlifi²

2020

JCOM

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Public acceptance of vaccination and Genetically Modified (GM) food is low and opposition is stiff. During two science festivals in France, we discussed in small groups the scientific evidence and current consensus on the benefits of vaccination and GM food safety. Our interventions reinforced people's positive opinions on vaccination and produced a drastic positive shift of GM food opinions. Despite the controversial nature of the topics discussed, there were very few cases of backfire effects among the 175 participants who volunteered. These results should encourage scientists to engage more often with the public during science festivals, even on heated topics.

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Section: Limitationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Are science festivals a good place to discuss heated topics?

Altay¹,

Lakhlifi²

2020

JCOM

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“…These results suggest that the chatbot could play a useful role beyond providing information to those directly exposed to it, as people use and share the chatbot to others (as in 2-step and multistep flow models of communication, see, e.g., Ahn et al, 2014; Katz & Lazarsfeld, 1955). More generally, the role of interpersonal communication in the dissemination of reliable information is being increasingly recognized in the field of risk communication (see, e.g., Altay & Lakhlifi, 2020; Altay & Mercier, 2020; Goldberg et al, 2019; Sloane & Wiles, 2019).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Information delivered by a chatbot has a positive impact on COVID-19 vaccines attitudes and intentions.

Altay¹,

Hacquin²,

Chevallier³

et al. 2023

Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied

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The Coronavirus disease; COVID-19 vaccines will not end the pandemic if they stay in freezers. In many countries, such as France, COVID-19 vaccines hesitancy is high. It is crucial that governments make it as easy as possible for people who want to be vaccinated to do so, but also that they devise communication strategies to address the concerns of vaccine hesitant individuals. We introduce and test on 701 French participants a novel messaging strategy: A chatbot that answers people's questions about COVID-19 vaccines. We find that interacting with this chatbot for a few minutes significantly increases people's intentions to get vaccinated (ß = 0.12) and has a positive impact on their attitudes toward COVID-19 vaccination (ß = 0.23). Our results suggest that a properly scripted and regularly updated chatbot could offer a powerful resource to help fight hesitancy toward COVID-19 vaccines. Public Significance StatementInteracting a few minutes with a chatbot answering the most common questions about COVID-19 vaccines increased people's intention to get vaccinated and had a positive impact on their attitudes toward the vaccines. Chatbots could be a powerful resource to fight COVID-19 vaccines hesitancy.

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“…There is apparently no previous work investigating association between pre-service coursework and perception of scientific consensus on evolution, except insofar as studies such as Rutledge and Mitchell (2002) and Toro (2018) are regarded as doing so: as Sickel and Friedrichsen (2013) note, instruments purported to assess personal acceptance of evolution often seem to be assessing perception of scientific acceptance of evolution (see also Tourangeau et al 2016). A substantial body of work on scientific consensus on climate change suggests that awareness of scientific consensus is significantly associated with acceptance and thus predictive of appropriate action (see, e.g., Sloane and Wiles 2020;van der Linden et al 2015; van der Linden 2021). In the case of high school biology teachers, it might be expected that awareness of the scientific consensus on evolution would Branch et al Evolution: Education and Outreach 2023, 16(1):4 similarly be predictive of desirable classroom outcomes, so the association between pre-service coursework and awareness of the scientific consensus is of interest.…”

Section: Perception Of Scientific Consensus On Evolutionmentioning

confidence: 99%

What’s effective and ineffective in preparing high school biology educators to teach evolution? Evidence from a representative national U.S. survey

Branch¹,

Plutzer

Reid³

2023

Evo Edu Outreach

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Background What types of coursework prepare biology teachers to teach evolution effectively? The present study provides answers to that question based on evidence from a nationally representative sample of public high school biology teachers in the U.S. Data about their pre-service coursework (in seven categories) and their attitudes and practices relevant to teaching evolution (in five categories relating to personal acceptance of evolution, perception of scientific consensus on evolution, instructional time devoted to evolution, classroom characterization of evolution and creationism, and emphasis on specific topics in teaching evolution) were collected. Results Coursework focused on evolution was significantly associated with positive outcomes: more class hours devoted to evolution, not presenting creationism as scientifically credible, and prioritizing common ancestry, human evolution, and the origin of life as topics of instruction, while shunning Biblical perspectives on the history of life. Similarly, coursework with some evolution content was significantly associated with positive outcomes: awareness of the scientific consensus on evolution, presenting evolution but not creationism as scientifically credible, and prioritizing common ancestry as a topic of instruction. But surprisingly, methods coursework on problem-based learning was significantly associated with negative outcomes: presenting creationism as well as evolution as scientifically credible and prioritizing Biblical perspectives on the history of life as a topic of instruction. Similarly, and likewise surprisingly, methods coursework on teaching controversial topics was associated with a negative outcome: presenting creationism as scientifically credible. Conclusion Consistent with previous work, the results of the present study suggest that pre-service coursework in evolution is important in preparing educators to teach evolution effectively. But they also suggest, surprisingly, that pre-service methods coursework aimed at preparing educators to teach evolution effectively tends, at present, to be counterproductive, leading to the presentation of creationism as scientifically credible.

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Communicating the consensus on climate change to college biology majors: The importance of preaching to the choir

Cited by 7 publications

References 23 publications

Are science festivals a good place to discuss heated topics?

Are science festivals a good place to discuss heated topics?

Information delivered by a chatbot has a positive impact on COVID-19 vaccines attitudes and intentions.

What’s effective and ineffective in preparing high school biology educators to teach evolution? Evidence from a representative national U.S. survey

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