The Power of a Picture: Overcoming Scientific Misinformation by Communicating Weight-of-Evidence Information with Visual Exemplars
The Power of a Picture: Overcoming Scientific Misinformation by Communicating Weight-of-Evidence Information with Visual Exemplars
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DOI：
10.1111/jcom.12159
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发表时间：
2015-08-01
影响因子：
7.9
通讯作者：
Eosco, Gina
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Dixon, Graham N.;McKeever, Brooke Weberling;Eosco, Gina
尽管大多数专家认为疫苗不会导致自闭症，但相当一部分美国公众相信两者之间存在联系。在一项实验中（N = 371），我们确定了新闻平衡作为对这个问题的误解的来源，并研究了减少误解的方法。特别是，通过纳入证据权重信息（即，声明只有一种观点得到证据和科学共识的支持），我们探讨了一篇文章是否可以在不引起误解的情况下提出相互矛盾的观点。包括证据权重信息培养了关于自闭症与疫苗联系的更准确的信念，但仅适用于具有有利的预先存在的科学观点的人。然而，这种条件效应消失时，伴随着视觉样本的证据权重信息。本研究的发现对科学传播具有理论和实践意义。
Although most experts agree that vaccines do not cause autism, a considerable portion of the American public believes in a link. In an experiment (N = 371), we identified journalistic balance as a source of misperception about this issue and examined ways to attenuate misperceptions. In particular, by including weight-of-evidence information (i.e., stating that only one view is supported by evidence and a scientific consensus), we explored whether an article can present conflicting views without causing misperceptions. Including weight-of-evidence information fostered more accurate beliefs about an autism-vaccine link, but only for people with favorable pre-existing scientific views. However, this conditional effect disappeared when visual exemplars accompanied weight-of-evidence information. The findings of this study have both theoretical and practical implications for science communication.