The cognitive foundations of misinformation on science

Marie, Antoine; Altay, Sacha; Strickland, Brent

doi:10.15252/embr.202050205

Cited by 8 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 13 publications

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“…In this regard, the literature is rich and offers copious evidence of the crucial role of socio‐cognitive factors in the way people select and process information, either reliable or not. Individual differences might be important in the evaluation of disinformation and peoples’ attitudes serve an essential function in the evaluation of online disinformation (Marie et al., 2020; Schaewitz et al., 2020).…”

Section: Assessmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Technical assistance in the field of risk communication

Maxim¹,

Mazzocchi²,

Broucke³

et al. 2021

EFS2

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This report assesses peer-reviewed and grey literature on risk communication concepts and practices, as requested by the European Commission to support the implementation of a 'General Plan for Risk Communication', i.e. an integrated framework for EU food safety risk assessors and risk managers at Union and national level, as required by the revised EU General Food Law Regulation. We conducted a scoping review of social research studies and official reports in relation to risk communication in the following areas: understanding and awareness of risk analysis roles and tasks, reducing misunderstanding of the different meaning of the terms 'hazard' and 'risk', tackling misinformation and disinformation, enhancing confidence in EU food safety, taking account of risk perceptions, key factors in trade-offs about risks, audience segmentation and tools, channels and mechanisms for coordinated risk communications. We structured our findings as follows: i) definitions of key concepts, ii) audience analysis and information requirements, iii) risk profiling, models and mechanisms, iv) contributions to communication strategies. We make several recommendations for consideration by the Commission, both in terms of actions to support the design and implementation of the general plan, and research needs that we consider crucial to further inform appropriate risk communication in the EU. EFSA carried out a targeted consultation of experts and a public consultation open to all interested parties including the general public, in preparing and finalising this report.

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Section: Assessmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Technical assistance in the field of risk communication

Maxim¹,

Mazzocchi²,

Broucke³

et al. 2021

EFS2

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“…On the other hand, U.S. and U.K. citizens frequently get exposed to the discourse, nowadays, that women do not get equal professional opportunities as men, a narrative which is both still largely true (James et al, 2019;Shen, 2013;Begeny et al, 2020;Moss-Racusin et al, 2012;Régner et al, 2019;Reuben et al, 2014) and which people are reputationally incentivized to endorse (Kuran, 1997;Kurzban & Aktipis, 2007). Moreover, the mind is evolutionarily ill-prepared to engage in explicit reasoning about base rates, counterfactuals, and statistics (Kahneman et al, 1982;Marie et al, 2020;Marie et al, 2021). Given this, one should perhaps not be too harsh on people's brains for using deeply entrenched and socially encouraged beliefs when quickly assessing a report that has all the appearances of scientific probity.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Moral commitment to gender equality increases (mis)perceptions of gender bias in hiring

Marie¹,

Xiao²,

Strickland³

2022

Preprint

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In a context of increasing expectations of gender equality in Western societies, exploring what may modulate people’s trust in evidence of gender discrimination against women is crucial to the deployment of corrective policies. Here, we explore one potentially powerful source of variation in how people evaluate such evidence: their level of moral commitment to gender equality. Across six experiments (N = 2861), we focus on perceptions of scientific reports of discriminatory hiring practices in academic settings. We find that people more morally committed to gender equality are more likely to trust experimental evidence of gender discrimination against women. This relationship cannot be explained by participants’ prior beliefs about the likelihood of gender bias in hiring practices in academia. Moreover, contrary to previous findings, women do not trust those results more than men. However, in addition to finding that moralization of gender equality is associated with greater trust in strong evidence of hiring bias against women, we find that it also predicts a higher likelihood of fallaciously inferring discrimination against women from contradictory evidence. These results paint a new picture of the origins of systematic differences in people’s appreciation of scientific evidence—strong but also weak—of gender bias in hiring, and show that issue moralization yields both costs and benefits in the public consumption of science.

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“…In view of potential societal/consumer concerns most studies conclude that attitude and acceptance change with knowledge, which shows the need for balanced information and the importance of science as well as risk communication (Marie et al, 2020). It is the responsibility of all stakeholders including authorities, to translate science into laymen language and with that facilitate informed decisions of consumers and informed political debates.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Potential, Challenges, and Threats for the Application of New Breeding Techniques by the Private Plant Breeding Sector in the EU

Jorasch

2020

Front. Plant Sci.

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Reconciling sustainability with agricultural productivity in the face of climate change relies strongly on the development of resilient, high-yielding crops of superior nutritional value that can be grown more resource efficiently. Therefore, innovation in plant breeding has gained unprecedented importance. Plant breeding depends upon genetic variability within crops and their relatives as a basis for developing new plant varieties with improved characteristics. Plant breeders are continuously integrating the latest methods in plant biology and genetics into their breeding toolbox to more efficiently use existing diversity but also to induce new genetic variation. Over the past years, ever more precise and efficient plant breeding methods have been developed. This plant breeding innovation leap is based on an in-depth understanding of plant genomes and refinement of breeding methods, enabling more efficient, more precise and faster progress in achieving the desired breeding goals. Consequently, these plant breeding innovations are rapidly being developed and utilized internationally and across the seed sector, public and private research, plant species and markets. The results of a survey among 62 private plant breeding companies conducted by Euroseeds and presented in this publication confirm the enormous interest of companies in using new breeding techniques (NBTs) for a wide range of crop species and traits and the negative impact of the current regulatory situation in the EU on companies' decisions for investments in NBT-related R&D activities for the EU market and beyond.

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The cognitive foundations of misinformation on science

Abstract: Mis information and misunderstanding of science can partially explained by cognitive processes rooted in our evolutionary past. Science communication can use this knowledge to overcome these cognitive limits.

Cited by 8 publications

References 13 publications

Technical assistance in the field of risk communication

Technical assistance in the field of risk communication

Moral commitment to gender equality increases (mis)perceptions of gender bias in hiring

Potential, Challenges, and Threats for the Application of New Breeding Techniques by the Private Plant Breeding Sector in the EU

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