Dominique Brossard

• Ph.D., Cornell University
• Professor and Chair at University of Wisconsin–Madison

This study explores the role of ChatGPT in science-related information retrieval, building on research conducted in 2023. Drawing on online survey data from seven countries—Australia, Denmark, Germany, Israel, South Korea, Taiwan, and the United States—and two data collection points (2023 and 2024), the study highlights ChatGPT’s growing role as an...

Using three U.S. public opinion survey datasets, this study examines whether use of specific social media platforms affects the gaps in factual and perceived knowledge of three wicked science issues among Americans with different racial and socioeconomic makeup. Less-educated Americans are less likely to gain factual knowledge but more likely to ga...

We present a new multilingual 14-item scale for measuring science literacy in survey and experimental research. The scale captures three essential dimensions of science literacy in a digital world: civic science literacy, science media literacy, and cognitive science literacy. We developed, tested, and validated the scale through two preregistered...

Publicly accessible large language models like ChatGPT are emerging as novel information intermediaries, enabling easy access to a wide range of science-related information. This study presents survey data from seven countries ( N = 4320) obtained in July and August 2023, focusing on the perception and use of GenAI for science-related information s...

Human brain organoids (HBOs) hold the potential for major medical breakthroughs but raise ethical considerations that could intensify public scrutiny and regulatory challenges. This study explores the underlying value and cognitive pathways shaping public opinion of HBOs. Findings reveal political ideology correlates to moral opposition to HBOs, re...

Comics have increasingly served as a tool for delivering scientific information to diverse audiences. However, little is known about how visual elements in comics influence their persuasive potential. Inspired by McCloud (1993)’s ‘masking effect’ theory featured in Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art, this study examined how different degrees o...

Artificial intelligence (AI) not only holds immense potential for improving quality of life but also creates complex ethical, legal, and societal challenges. AI has gained significant attention recently, particularly by introducing ChatGPT and other emerging applications. This paper offers a comprehensive overview of public opinion trends on AI, dr...

While artistic representations of scientific subjects, phenomena, and data have gained traction on social media, their effects on audience engagement remain understudied. Using an experiment with Instagram users in the United States ( N = 655), this study found that exposure to artistic representations of COVID-19 information on Instagram significa...

The spread of aquatic invasive species (AIS) poses many challenges to local, state, and federal government agencies in the United States and worldwide, as well as individuals living on lakeshore properties on which they are found. Lakeshore property owners, in particular, face significant economic damage when invasive species are discovered adjacen...

Scientists are increasingly expected to participate in public engagement around prominent science and technology issues. However, scientists remain concerned that public engagement takes time away from conducting research. Little is known about the relationship between scientists’ productivity and their willingness to participate in different types...

The use of artificial intelligence-based algorithms for the curation of news content by social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter has upended the gatekeeping role long held by traditional news outlets. This has caused some US policymakers to argue that platforms are skewing news diets against them, and such claims are beginning to take hold...

Using data from a nationally representative survey of U.S. adults, this study explores how trust in key actors to responsibly manage artificial intelligence (AI) develops among members of the U.S. population and how trust, along with other key factors, shapes public attitudes toward AI. Greater trust is linked to stronger support for AI, both direc...

This study examined the effectiveness of using comics to communicate scientific information on COVID-19 vaccine safety to Black Americans. Although the effects of comics on interest, recall, and information sharing intention were not significant compared to expository texts and infographics, comics featuring abstract, racially ambiguous characters...

Although scientists agree that climate change is anthropogenic, differing interpretations of evidence in a highly polarized sociopolitical environment impact how individuals perceive climate change. While prior work suggests that individuals experience climate change through local conditions, there is a lack of consensus on how personal experience...

Visual art has been used to revamp the portrayal of climate change with the aims of engaging emotions and expanding nonexperts’ psychological capacity to perceive its relevance. However, empirical evidence supporting the effectiveness of artistic representation of data as a tool for public communication is lacking. Using controlled experiments with...

Scientific experts can play an important role in decision-making surrounding policy for technical and value-laden issues, often in contexts that directly affect lay publics. Yet little is known about what characterizes scientific experts who want lay public involvement in decision-making. In this study, we examine how synthetic biology experts' per...

This research addresses the association between attention to science fiction and public opinion of human genome editing (HGE). Using a nationally representative survey, our results show that attention to science fiction is associated with both risk and benefit perception of the technology. In addition, results show that, at higher levels of attenti...

Visual art has been used to revamp the portrayal of climate change with a hope to engage emotions while expanding nonexperts’ psychological capacity to perceive its relevance. However, empirical evidence supporting the effectiveness of artistic representation of data as a tool for public communication is lacking. Using controlled experiments with t...

The COVID-19 pandemic went hand in hand with what some have called a “(mis)infodemic” about the virus on social media. Drawing on partisan motivated reasoning and partisan selective sharing, this study examines the influence of political viewpoints, anxiety, and the interactions of the two on believing and willingness to share false, corrective, an...

Scientists are expected to engage with the public, especially when society faces challenges like the COVID-19 pandemic or climate change, but what public engagement means to scientists is not clear. We use a triangulated, mixed-methods approach combining survey and focus group data to gain insight into how pre-tenure and tenured scientists personal...

Current process-based approaches to regulation are no longer fit for purpose.

The idea of faculty engaging in meaningful dialogue with different publics instead of simply communicating their research to interested audiences has gradually morphed from a novel concept to a mainstay within most parts of the academy. Given the wide variety of public engagement modalities, it may be unsurprising that we still lack a comprehensive...

The call for public scholarship to emphasize the broader impacts of science has raised questions about how universities can support this work among their scientists. This study quantitatively assesses how institutional factors shape scientists’ participation in public scholarship, a subset of public engagement focusing on scientists’ involvement in...

As the reach of science content in traditional media declines, many institutions and scientists are turning to YouTube as a powerful tool for communicating directly with non-expert publics. They do so with little empirical social science research guiding their efforts. This study explores how video characteristics and social endorsement cues provid...

In this qualitative study, we analyze the experiences of those living in flood-prone economically constrained communities by exploring reloca-tion, risk perceptions, and communication in the context of extreme seasonal flood disasters. Our study included semi-structured interviews with residents in three communities and unstructured interviews with...

This paper synthesizes the efforts of an interdisciplinary, University-convened communication task force in the U.S. that used science communication theory to develop an effective strategy during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic. We outline recommendations for researchers and practitioners who are, or are interested in, implementing theory...

Scientists have not yet adapted to new information environments.

Effective public engagement with complex technologies requires a nuanced understanding of how different audiences make sense of and communicate disruptive technologies with immense social implications. Using latent class analysis (LCA) on nationally-representative survey data (N = 2,700), we examine public attitudes on different aspects of AI, and...

Wastewater surveillance for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has garnered extensive public attention during the coronavirus disease pandemic as a proposed complement to existing disease surveillance systems. Over the past year, methods for detection and quantification of SARS-CoV-2 viral RNA in untreated sewage have adva...

In a rapidly changing public health crisis such as COVID-19, researchers need innovative approaches that can effectively link qualitative approaches and computational methods. In this article, computational and qualitative methods are used to analyze survey data collected in March 2020 ( n = 2,270) to explore the content of persuasive messages and...

Advances in gene editing technologies for human, plant, and animal applications have led to calls from bench and social scientists, as well as a wide variety of societal stakeholders, for broad public engagement in the decision-making about these new technologies. Unfortunately, there is limited understanding among the groups calling for public eng...

Little is known about how incidental exposure to news, interpersonal discussion, and the diversity of social networks interact in social media environments and for science-related issues. Using a U.S. nationally representative survey, we investigate how these features relate to factual knowledge of gene editing. Incidental exposure to science-relat...

Building on existing theoretical frameworks for the study of incivility, interactivity, and negativity bias, this study contributes to the growing body of literature on the impact of incivility in online comments. Specifically, it tests incivility’s impact on news engagement intentions; investigates political and personality predispositions’ roles...

Science literacy is often held up as crucial for avoiding science-related misinformation and enabling more informed individual and collective decision-making. But research has not yet examined whether science literacy actually enables this, nor what skills it would need to encompass to do so. In this report, we address three questions to outline wh...

Wastewater surveillance for SARS-CoV-2 has garnered extensive public attention during the COVID-19 pandemic as a proposed complement to existing disease surveillance systems. Over the past year, environmental microbiology and engineering researchers have advanced methods for detection and quantification of SARS-CoV-2 viral RNA in untreated sewage a...

Deference to scientific authority theoretically captures the belief that scientists and not publics should make decisions on science in society. Few studies examine deference, however, and none test this central theoretical claim. The result is deference is often conflated with concepts such as trust in scientists and belief in the authority of sci...

Bridging the gap between seasonal climate forecast development and science communication best practice is a critical step towards the integration of climate information into decision-making practices for enhanced community resilience to climate variability. Recent efforts in the physical sciences have focused on the development of seasonal climate...

Understanding how individuals perceive the barriers and benefits of precautionary actions is key for effective communication about public health crises, such as the COVID-19 outbreak. This study used innovative computational methods to analyze 30,000 open-ended responses from a large-scale survey to track how Wisconsin (U.S.A.) residents' perceptio...

Gene editing is an inherently wicked problem with no single right answer and no group uniquely positioned to decide this answer. We discuss the intricacies of the debates surrounding both plant and human applications of gene editing. Specifically, we demonstrate how one technology has developed into two separate context-driven debates within the sc...

A bstract This study analyzes the relationship between state-level variables and Twitter discourse on genetically modified organisms (GMOs). Using geographically identified tweets related to GMOs, we examined how the sentiments expressed about GMOs related to education levels, news coverage, proportion of rural and urban counties, state-level polit...

Public discourse and deliberation are key to developing socially responsible and acceptable human gene editing research and applications. Researchers have raised concerns, however, that discourse about heritable gene edits, especially for non-therapeutic (or enhancement) purposes, might negatively bias public opinion of applications, including non-...

As research on human applications of CRISPR advances, researchers, advisory bodies, and other stakeholder organizations continue calling for global public discourses and engagement to shape development of human gene editing (HGE). Research that captures public views and tests ways for engaging across viewpoints is vital for facilitating these disco...

The emergence of the 2019 novel coronavirus has led to more than a pandemic—indeed, COVID-19 is spawning myriad other concerns as it rapidly marches around the globe. One of these concerns is a surge of misinformation, which we argue should be viewed as a risk in its own right, and to which insights from decades of risk communication research must...

This paper examines public attitudes toward urban red foxes and coyotes in Madison, Wisconsin (US), and the roles that perceived risks and benefits, attention to local news about urban wildlife, political ideology, and ecological worldview play in an individual’s attitude toward these species. Data were collected using an in-person survey at four p...

Spreading issue awareness about increasingly interdisciplinary scientific discoveries faces progressively larger communication challenges due to the complexity, innovation pace, and broad applicability of these innovations. Traditionally, the public relies on legacy media for information and discussion of science topics. In face of a changing infor...

Recent gene editing technologies advances, such as CRISPR/Cas9, will continue to shape the future of agriculture and genetically engineered crops. Using a representative survey of a North American Midwestern state, we examine the relative weights of specific risks and benefits associated with GMO foods in impacting potential rejection of the techno...

In an era of large-scale science-related challenges and rapid advancements in groundbreaking science with major societal implications, communicating about science is critical. The profile of science communication has increased over the last few decades, with multiple sectors calling for such activities. As scientists respond to calls for public-fac...

This chapter examines similarities and differences between scientists’ and nonscientists’ views of synthetic biology and the factors that shape them, as well as limitations of available research and the need for more focus on the views of both groups. We combine data from a survey of researchers in synthetic biology and a nationally representative...

Public opinion regarding genetic control of infectious disease vectors such as mosquitoes varies in part because the underlying risk and benefit perceptions about novel gene editing and genetic engineering (GE) techniques are multi-faceted. We designed a survey of the US population (N = 1137) to unpack some of those complexities. Of particular inte...

Events such as the 2017 “March for Science” have brought greater attention to public attitudes toward science and scientists. Our analyses of recent poll data show that Americans’ confidence in scientists has been high for roughly 40 years (relative to other institutions), and that it is high even for controversial topics such as global warming and...

Developments in CRISPR‐based gene‐editing technologies have generated a growing number of proposals to edit genes in wildlife to meet conservation goals. As these proposals have attracted greater attention, controversies have emerged among scientists and stakeholder groups over potential consequences and ethical implications of gene editing. Respon...

Political conservatives are consistently more supportive of hydraulic fracturing (fracking) in the U.S., while political liberals are consistently more opposed, yet the processes shaping this division are largely unexplored. Here, we illustrate how political polarization in support for fracking can be understood by how risk and benefit perceptions...

Interest in public engagement with science activities has grown in recent decades, especially engagement through social media and among graduate students. Research on scientists’ views of engagement, particularly two-way engagement and engagement through social media, is sparse, particularly research examining graduate students’ views. We compare g...

IBM SPSS dataset file of graduate student and faculty responses (titled [dataset_grad student & faculty.sav]). (SAV)

The impact of knowledge on public attitudes toward scientific issues remains unclear, due in part to ill-defined differences in how research designs conceptualize knowledge. Using genetically modified foods as a framework, we explore the impacts of perceived familiarity and factual knowledge, and the moderating roles of media attention and a food-s...

In November of 2017, an interdisciplinary panel discussed the complexities of gene drive applications as part of the third Sackler Colloquium on “The Science of Science Communication.” The panel brought together a social scientist, life scientist, and journalist to discuss the issue from each of their unique perspectives. This paper builds on the i...

Using the Zika outbreak as a context of inquiry, this study examines how assigning blame on social media relates to the social amplification of risk framework (SARF). Past research has discussed the relationship between the SARF and traditional mass media, but the role of social media platforms in amplification or attenuation of risk perceptions re...

In May 2016, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) released the report “Genetically Engineered Crops: Experiences and Prospects,” summarizing scientific consensus on genetically engineered crops and their implications. NASEM reports aim to give the public and policymakers information on socially relevant science issu...

We present an analysis of how citizens form attitudes about labeling nanotechnology, building on previous work on the socio-cultural dynamics under publics’ perceptions of risks and governance of emerging technologies. We examine whether individuals’ views about labeling nanotechnology products are correlated with their attitudes about genetically...

This study demonstrates a post-hoc segmentation that is effective in creating distinct and robust segments of interest for researchers and practitioners in science communication. We use agglomerative hierarchical clustering to classify survey respondents based on answers to a short, five-item battery of questions drawn from variables that are frequ...

The synthetic biology research community will influence the future development of synthetic biology and its emergence into the sociopolitical and regulatory arenas. Because of this influence, we provide a first look at those involved in the research field—their views regarding the field and interactions with the public—using a unique sample of Unit...

The latest biotechnology applications allow for faster and cheaper gene editing than ever before. Many people are calling for a public debate on these issues, including the social, cultural and ethical implications of these applications. On the other hand, the information available to citizens is sometimes contradictory and communication that takes...

We investigate the impact of a science documentary on individuals' intention to engage in information-related behaviors by experimentally testing the effects of source type (scientist, politician, or anonymous source) and communication setting (interview or lecture) using a manipulated clip from the documentary, ‘An Inconvenient Truth’. Our results...

Information visualization could be used to leverage the credibility of displayed scientific data. However, little was known about how display characteristics interact with individuals' predispositions to affect perception of data credibility. Using an experiment with 517 participants, we tested perceptions of data credibility by manipulating data v...

Research suggests non-experts associate different content with the terms “global warming” and “climate change.” We test this claim with Twitter content using supervised learning software to categorize tweets by topic and explore differences between content using “global warming” and “climate change” between 1 January 2012 and 31 March 2014. Twitter...

With social networking site (SNS) use now ubiquitous in American culture, researchers have started paying attention to its effects in a variety of domains. This study explores the relationships between measures of Facebook use and political knowledge levels using a pair of representative samples of U.S. adults. We find that although the mere use of...

This study surveyed 137 policymakers and key stakeholders (e.g., employees of government agencies, academic institutions, nonprofit organizations, industry, and advocacy groups) involved in making decisions on nuclear energy policy, investigating how they differentially perceived the importance of scientific evidence in driving nuclear policy. We a...

In March 2012 ABC World News Report aired a series of reports on lean finely textured beef (LFTB) that resulted in a 10-year low for beef prices and the bankruptcy of a major firm that produced LFTB. Using a random sample survey, we tested the effects of the media frame “pink slime” and industry frame “lean finely textured beef,” alongside media us...

The #overlyhonestmethods trend on Twitter is a space used by many scientists to peel back the curtain on their work and share observations and insights into the research world. We employ computer-assisted coding to assess the themes of 58,125 #overlyhonestmethods posts from January 7, 2013—the hashtag’s inception—to January 6, 2016. We additionally...

Social media and its embedded user commentary are playing increasingly influential roles in the news process. However, researchers’ understanding of the social media commenting environment remains limited, despite rising concerns over uncivil comments. Accordingly, this study used a supervised machine learning–based method of content analysis to ex...

This paper combines human- and computer-mediated content analysis to advance the understanding of how far-right parties are using new media to mobilize their supporters in the transitioning Ukrainian democracy. This study’s theoretical approach employs the framework of connective action logic; results suggest that young and challenger parties are m...

Social media have given rise to new opportunities for science organizations to communicate with the public. Building on theories of science communication and public relations, this study examined scientific institutions’ use of Twitter for one-way and two-way communication in connection with science festivals over the period 2012 to 2015, using Nan...

The emergence of CRISPR–Cas9 gene editing has given new urgency to calls from social scientists, bench scientists, and scientific associations for broad public dialog about human genome editing and its applications. Most recently, these calls were formalized in a consensus report on the science, ethics, and governance of human genome editing releas...

Uncivil comments following online news articles about issues of science and technology have been shown to lead to biased interpretations of the news content itself. Using an experiment embedded in a nationally representative survey, we provide evidence that cues about comment moderation ‒ even without any change in the comments themselves ‒ have th...

Increased hydraulic fracturing operations (also known as ‘fracking’) in the U.S. have introduced a larger portion of the public to new and more extensive risks and benefits: from concerns of impacts on water quality and human health to benefits from increased oil and gas production and local economic development. As most policy affecting fracking o...

This study examines how familiarity with an issue—nanotechnology—moderates the effect of exposure to science information on how people process mediated messages about a complex issue. In an online experiment, we provide a nationally representative sample three definitions of nanotechnology (technical, technical applications, and technical risk/bene...

Theoretically and methodologically sound research on the reach and impact of public engagement practices continues to lag behind. Using the 2015 Wisconsin Science Festival as context, we empirically investigate the impacts of a public engagement activity about a nascent and controversial scientific issue, human gene editing. Overall, we find the pa...

In recent years, increased Internet access and new communication technologies have led to the development of online methods for gathering public opinion and behavioral data related to controversial issues like climate change. To help climate-change researchers better adapt to the new era of online-based research, a review of, and methodological app...

This research offers one of the first analyses of the US public's views about synthetic biology, based on nationally representative survey data. We provide in-depth, multiyear descriptive results of public attitudes toward this issue and compare them with individuals’ attitudes toward other issues. Our data indicate that the public does not general...

Over the past 50 years, the food industry has transformed. The first food-related crops containing gene modifications were commercialized in the late 1990s, and researchers began documenting trends toward consumption of larger portions of food, increased reliance on fast food, and the health impacts of living in “food deserts.” Polls examined here...

This online experiment explored how contextual information embedded in new media channels such as YouTube may serve as normative social cues to users. Specifically, we examined whether the number of views listed under a YouTube video about climate change would elicit inferences regarding how " others " feel about the climate issue and, consequently...

Scientific issues frequently pique the interest of public audiences, and advancements in communication technologies have increased the overall use of technology by citizens, particularly for engaging with science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) issues. In a context in which science and media are increasingly coupled, relationships...

In recent years, the importance of stakeholder involvement and of integrating diverse perspectives into risk management has gained increasing recognition. However, it remains a challenging task to identify all potentially relevant stakeholders and to reliably describe their deeply held beliefs regarding the risks associated with complex industrial...

Of all the online information tools that the public relies on to collect information and share opinions about scientific and environmental issues, Twitter presents a unique venue to assess the spontaneous and genuine opinions of networked publics, including those about a focusing event like the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accident following the 2011...

Given the ethical questions that surround emerging science, this study is interested in studying public trust in scientific and religious authorities for information about the risks and benefits of science. Using data from a nationally representative survey of American adults, we employ regression analysis to better understand the relationships bet...

Using the “#arseniclife” controversy as a case study, we examine the roles of blogs and Twitter in post-publication review. The controversy was initiated by a scientific article about bacteria able to substitute arsenic for phosphorus in its genetic material. We present the debate chronologically, using prominent online media to reconstruct the eve...

Genetically engineered (GE) crops were first introduced commercially in the 1990s. After two decades of production, some groups and individuals remain critical of the technology based on their concerns about possible adverse effects on human health, the environment, and ethical considerations. At the same time, others are concerned that the technol...

Recent technological developments have created novel opportunities for analyzing and identifying patterns in large volumes of digital content. However, many content analysis tools require researchers to choose between the validity of human-based coding and the ability to analyze large volumes of content through computer-based techniques. This study...

How do neuroscientists “make sense” of public visibility in the context of their scientific work? Hierarchical cluster analysis and multidimensional scaling analyses of 24 in-depth interviews with U.S. neuroscientists produced word groups and concept maps related to possible “medialization” processes. Findings suggest that scientists are factoring...