Asheley R. Landrum

Texas Tech University | TTU · College of Media & Communication

As science communication scholars, we encourage interdisciplinary efforts such as those by Blancke, Grunewald, and De Jaeger to engage with the public on GMOs and genetic engineering broadly. We extend the advice given by these scholars with tips based on what we know from the science of science communication.

Learning from other people requires integrating reasoning about an informant's psychological properties, such as knowledge and intent, with reasoning about the implications of the data the informant chooses to present. Here, we argue for an approach that considers these two reasoning paths as interrelated, reciprocal processes that develop over exp...

Paper accepted for presentation at the 38th annual meeting of the Cognitive Science Society

How do children use informant niceness, meanness, and expertise when choosing between informant claims and crediting informants with knowledge? In Experiment 1, preschoolers met two experts providing conflicting claims for which only one had relevant expertise. Five-year-olds endorsed the relevant expert's claim and credited him with knowledge more...

This paper examines a remedy for a defect in existing accounts of public risk perceptions. The accounts in question feature two dynamics: the affect heuristic, which emphasizes the impact of visceral feelings on information processing; and the cultural cognition thesis, which describes the tendency of individuals to form beliefs that reflect and re...

Climate-facilitated spread of mosquito-borne pathogens to new environments elevates the importance of policies that limit greenhouse gas emissions as well as the development and uptake of new pharmaceutical interventions. Whereas past research attempts to bolster support for both through either climate or health risk communication, fewer attempt to...

As science media content creators strive for inclusivity in communication design and promotion, they must consider the influence of audiences’ identities on their engagement with science media. A gender gap in viewership or "missing audience" has been identified for women viewers for educational science content on digital media; one such example of...

When being faced with scientific evidence, it is important that people integrate this evidence into their belief system. Here we investigate the influences of external and internal factors on lay audiences’ belief updating based on scientific evidence. Participants were presented a series of fictitious hypotheses. For each hypothesis, we assessed t...

This study explores U.S. adults’ media consumption—in terms of the average bias and reliability of the media outlets participants report referencing—and the extent to which those participants hold inaccurate beliefs about COVID-19 and vaccination. Notably, we used a novel means of capturing the (left-right) bias and reliability of audiences’ media...

In collaboration with professional science journalists, we conducted a national online survey (N = 2,088) to explore facets of awe as potential response states to science journalism and how audiences’ dispositional science curiosity may influence these response states. Our science journalist collaborators identified several “awe-inducing” articles...

The COVID-19 pandemic of the last 2 years (and counting) disrupted commerce, travel, workplaces, habits, and—of course—health, the world over. This study aimed to capture snapshots of the perceptions and misperceptions of COVID-19 among 27 participants from three US municipalities. These perspectives are analyzed through thematic analyses and conce...

In this Research Topic we are interested in the impact of online video-sharing on the public communication of science and the environment, but also on intra-scientific communication and practice. The online video format has great potential for science and environmental communication, but there are also potential problems and pitfalls that need to b...

This study examines to what extent study design decisions influence the perceived efficacy of consensus messaging, using medicinal cannabis as the context. We find that researchers’ decisions about study design matter. A modified Solomon Group Design was used in which participants were either assigned to a group that had a pretest (within-subjects...

This study explores the potential benefits of different formats of behind-the-scenes content for educational science media using the Differential Susceptibility to Media Effects Model. We also consider potential gender differences in response to the behind-the-scenes content and the influence of using an on-camera host versus a solely voiced-over p...

Significant gaps remain between public opinion and the scientific consensus on many issues. We present the results of three studies (N = 722 in total) for the development and testing of a novel instrument to measure a largely unmeasured aspect of scientific literacy: the enterprise of science, particularly in the context of its social structures. W...

Educational science programming on digital video platforms such as YouTube wrestle with sometimes significant gender disparities in viewership. When men engage with science and technology content on digital platforms more than women, gender gaps in the understanding of, engagement with, and interest in STEM may intensify. Therefore, there is a crit...

While people’s views about science are related to identity factors (e.g. political orientation) and to knowledge of scientific theories, knowledge about how science works in general also plays an important role. To test this claim, we administered two detailed assessments about the practices of science to a demographically representative sample of...

This report describes the results of an ongoing research program aimed at promoting science-informed reporting of science media, news and insights. Project sponsors include the National Science Foundation, the John Templeton Foundation, and the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania. The report was prepared for internal us...

Sparked by a collaboration between academic researchers and science media professionals, this study sought to test three commonly used headline formats that vary based on whether (and, if so, how) important information is left out of a headline to encourage participants to read the corresponding article; these formats are traditionally-formatted he...

As soon as it was clear that Pope Francis's 2015 Encyclical, Laudato Si’ : On Care for Our Common Home , would discuss, among other issues, the moral imperative to address global climate change, U.S. scholars and research institutions rushed to collect data surrounding its release. These groups aimed to determine whether there would be a “Francis E...

Calls for censorship have been made in response to the proliferation of flat Earth videos on YouTube, but these videos are likely convincing to very few. Instead, people may worry these videos are brainwashing others. That individuals believe other people will be more influenced by media messages than themselves is called third-person perception (T...

In recent years, there has been considerable interest in studying and using scientific consensus messaging strategies to influence public opinion. Researchers disagree, sometimes vociferously, about how to examine the potential influence of consensus messaging, debating one another publicly and privately. In this essay, we take a step back and focu...

Studies indicate that Genetically Modified Organisms, or GMOs, are safe to consume, but many adults remain skeptical. What kind of input are children receiving about GMOs? And how does that input shape their understanding of what GMOs are? We investigated this question in the context of parent-child conversations about food product decisions. Seven...

The Flat Earth movement appears to have emerged from a combination of Biblical literalism (e.g., young Earth creationism, geocentrism) and conspiracy theorizing (e.g., belief that NASA faked the moon landings). Interviews with participants of the first International Flat Earth Conference in 2017 revealed that the majority of Flat Earthers have come...

The Flat Earth movement appears to have emerged from a combination of Biblical literalism (e.g., young Earth creationism, geocentricism) and conspiracy theorizing (e.g., belief that NASA faked the moon landings). Interviews with participants of the first International Flat Earth Conference in 2017 revealed that the majority of Flat Earthers have co...

In recent years, there has been considerable interest in studying and using scientific consensus messaging strategies to influence public opinion. Researchers disagree, sometimes vociferously, about how to examine the potential influence of consensus messaging, debating one another publicly and privately. In this essay, we take a step back and focu...

Calls for censorship have been made in response to the proliferation of flat Earth videos on YouTube, but these videos are likely convincing to very few. Instead, people appear to worry that these videos are brainwashing others—not themselves. That individuals believe other people will be more influenced by media messages than themselves is called...

Call for Papers About this Research Topic In this Research Topic we are interested in the impact of online video-sharing on the public communication of science and the environment, but also on intra-scientific communication and practice. The online video format has great potential for science and environmental communication, but there are also pot...

YouTube has been influential in propagating Flat Earth Ideology, but not everyone is equally susceptible to the effects of watching these videos. In an experiment with a participant pool restricted to regular YouTube users, we found that lower science intelligence and higher conspiracy mentality increase individuals’ susceptibility to flat Earth ar...

Conservation of our global natural resources is one of the most pressing concerns facing our international society. One of these crucial resources is water. The current study sought to understand how individual factors such as experience with water scarcity, message framing, and ideology can impact perceptions, attitudes, and behaviors related to w...

Members of the public can disagree with scientists in at least two ways: people can reject well-established scientific theories and they can believe fabricated, deceptive claims about science to be true. Scholars examining the reasons for these disagreements find that some individuals are more likely than others to diverge from scientists because o...

Public trust in agricultural biotechnology organizations that produce so-called ‘genetically-modified organisms’ (GMOs) is affected by misinformed attacks on GM technology and worry that producers' concern for profits overrides concern for the public good. In an experiment, we found that reporting that the industry engages in open and transparent r...

In an era where expertise is increasingly critiqued, this study draws from the research on expertise and scientist stereotyping to explore who the public considers to be a scientist in the context of media coverage about climate change and genetically modified organisms. Using survey data from the United States, we find that political ideology and...

Members of the public can disagree with scientists in at least two ways: people can reject well-established scientific theories and they can believe fabricated, deceptive claims about science to be true. Scholars examining the reasons for these disagreements find that some individuals are more likely than others to diverge from scientists due to in...

Scholars are divided over whether communicating to the public the existence of scientific consensus on an issue influences public acceptance of the conclusions represented by that consensus. Here, we examine the influence of four messages on perception and acceptance of the scientific consensus on the safety of genetically modified organisms (GMOs)...

Public trust in agricultural biotechnology organizations that produce so-called ‘genetically-modified organisms’ (GMOs) is affected by misinformed attacks on GM technology and worry that producers' concern for profits overrides concern for the public good. In an experiment, we found that reporting that the industry engages in open and transparent r...

How can education optimize transmission of knowledge while also fostering further learning? Focusing on children at the cusp of formal schooling (N = 180, age = 4.0–6.0 y), we investigate learning after direct instruction by a knowledgeable teacher, after questioning by a knowledgeable teacher, and after questioning by a naïve informant. Consistent...

How can education optimize transmission of knowledge while also fostering further learning? Focusing on children at the cusp of formal schooling (N = 180, age = 4.0 - 6.0 y), we investigate learning after direct instruction by a knowledgeable teacher, after questioning by a knowledgeable teacher, and after questioning by a naïve informant. Consiste...

Most Americans reject some or all parts of evolutionary theory, contrary to the scientific consensus. Americans' attitudes toward evolution at least partially depend on their religious or political values, and prior work has argued that knowledge of the theory plays a negligible role. But there have been no systematic, large-scale attempts to measu...

Intermediaries serve several crucial roles in bridging scientists and society. Intrinsic to many of them are challenges key to science communication. These include determining how intermediaries can increase awareness of their organization and their messages, how intermediaries can increase their trustworthiness, how to present information to diffe...

Previous research suggests that when individuals encounter new information, they interpret it through perceptual ‘filters’ of prior beliefs, relevant social identities, and messenger credibility. In short, evaluations are not based solely on message accuracy, but also on the extent to which the message and messenger are amenable to the values of on...

Traditional moral arguments fail to persuade conservative climate sceptics. Pope Francis' gifting of his climate encyclical to President Trump prior to his leaving the Paris Agreement shows that even a religious leader's persuasive power is constrained by how his message resonates with conservative moral values.

This article describes evidence suggesting that science curiosity counteracts politically biased information processing. This finding is in tension with two bodies of research. The first casts doubt on the existence of “curiosity” as a measurable disposition. The other suggests that individual differences in cognition related to science comprehensi...

The current research focuses on how children’s inquiry may be affected by how they learn about which sources are likely to provide accurate, helpful information. Four- and 5-year-olds (N = 188) were tasked with asking two different puppet informants – one knowledgeable and one not knowledgeable – questions to determine which of four pictures was in...

In many ways, evaluating informants based on their features is a problem of induction: children rely on the assumption that observable informant characteristics (e.g., traits, behaviors, social categories) will predict unobservable ones (e.g., future behavior, knowledge states, intentions). Yet, to make sensible inferences, children must recognize...

When learning from others, it is important to take a critical stance—evaluating both the informants themselves as well as the content of their claims. In addition to accuracy, one can evaluate claims based on quality. The current study investigates developmental change in learners' evaluations of evidence that varies in quality—inductive strength b...

Children are frequently faced with problems that they cannot immediately solve on their own. For some of these problems, children can learn from listening to claims and advice from others. Indeed, sometimes they need not do anything but passively attend to what they are told or what they overhear to learn something new (e.g., Mills, Danovitch, Gran...

Two studies examined developmental differences in how children weigh capability and objectivity when evaluating potential judges. In Study 1, 84 6- to 12-year-olds and adults were told stories about pairs of judges that varied in capability (i.e., perceptual capacity) and objectivity (i.e., the relationship to a contestant) and were asked to predic...