RAPID: Influence on Beliefs in Non-Scientific Theories

RAPID：对非科学理论信仰的影响

• 批准号: 1933116
• 负责人: David Peterson
• 金额: $ 3.83万
• 依托单位: Iowa State University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2019
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2019-09-01 至 2020-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1933116&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: RAPID; Influence; Beliefs; Non; Scientific

Contrary to the popular negative depictions, public endorsement of non-scientific theories are not solely the domain of extremists and paranoids. A large proportion of the public will admit to believing in at least one matter that most in the scientific community disparage. To an outside observer, a particular theory may seem irrational, but that does not preclude its potential to be socially or politically consequential. As a result, it is vital to understand where these attitudes come from in order to develop strategies to minimize their spread. A problem researchers face, however, is that many non-scientific views have already become politicized before surveys assessing respondents' beliefs in them are fielded. Moreover, it is impossible for researchers to anticipate the rare situations in which elites unambiguously endorse a "theory" that most scientists would not endorse. As such, it is difficult to disentangle the causal effects of elite cues, partisanship, and the like. The current research will re-interview a set of survey respondents (previously interviewed in 2017) and a set of new respondents to gauge how their attitudes about a theory not supported by scientists has changed in the last two years (before and after the non-scientific perspective became promoted by elites). This research will enable the PIs to test over time changes in support for a non-scientific views. Given the importance and prominence, along with the disruption, possibly caused by public acceptance of non-scientific views, the knowledge gained in this research will enable efforts to mitigate the effects of non-scientific views. In this proposal, we empirically test how an individual's support of a non-scientific view changes over time. We will re-interview a set of previously interviewed survey respondents to leverage changes since 2017. Additionally, we will survey a set of new respondents and randomize the information about the view they receive. The combination of these designs will enable us to test several theoretically motivated hypotheses about how the intersection of a person's predispositions and the information environment create support for non-scientific views and how these views may become politicized.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

与流行的负面描述相反，公众对非科学理论的支持不仅仅是极端分子和偏执狂的领域。很大一部分公众将承认至少相信科学界大多数人所鄙视的一件事。在外部观察者看来，一种特定的理论可能看起来不合理，但这并不排除它具有社会或政治影响的潜力。因此，了解这些态度从何而来，以便制定战略，将其传播降至最低，这一点至关重要。然而，研究人员面临的一个问题是，在评估受访者对它们的信念的调查之前，许多非科学观点已经变得政治化。此外，研究人员不可能预料到精英们毫不含糊地支持大多数科学家不会支持的“理论”的罕见情况。因此，很难理清精英暗示、党派之争等因素的因果关系。目前的研究将重新采访一组调查受访者(之前在2017年接受采访)和一组新的受访者，以衡量他们对过去两年(精英们倡导非科学观点之前和之后)对一个不得到科学家支持的理论的态度发生了什么变化。这项研究将使PI能够测试随时间的变化对非科学观点的支持。鉴于公众接受非科学观点可能造成的重要性和显着性，以及可能造成的干扰，从这项研究中获得的知识将有助于努力减轻非科学观点的影响。在这项建议中，我们从经验上测试个人对非科学观点的支持如何随着时间的推移而变化。我们将重新采访一组之前采访过的调查受访者，以利用2017年以来的变化。此外，我们将对一组新的受访者进行调查，并随机收集有关他们收到的观点的信息。这些设计的组合将使我们能够测试几个理论上有动机的假设，关于一个人的倾向和信息环境的交集如何创造对非科学观点的支持，以及这些观点如何可能变得政治化。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。