Resources Repository
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ReportPublication 2017Communicating Science Effectively: A Research Agenda
Science and technology are embedded in virtually every aspect of modern life. As a result, …
Science and technology are embedded in virtually every aspect of modern life. As a result, people face an increasing need to integrate information from science with their personal values and other considerations as they make important life decisions about medical care, the safety of foods, what to do about climate change, and many other issues. Communicating science effectively, however, is a complex task and an acquired skill. Moreover, the approaches to communicating science that will…
Priority Setting/Ethics | Decision Psychology | Science/Technology | Preferences/Values | Social Determinants | Climate/Environment | Culture/Society | Energy/Engineering | Education/Labor | Health/Medicine | North America -
Online LearningVideo, Teaching Resource 2019Colloquium on Misinformation About Science in the Public Sphere
This colloquium was held in April 2019 at Irvine, CA in and was co-sponsored by …
This colloquium was held in April 2019 at Irvine, CA in and was co-sponsored by the Rita Allen Foundation, Science Sandbox, Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, and the KAVLI Foundation. Misinformation about science in the public sphere is of great concern to scientists and to those who seek to communicate and support the use of science in public debate and decision-making. Participants examined the growing body of research on the factors that make people more or…
Priority Setting/Ethics | Decision Psychology | Science/Technology | Preferences/Values | Culture/Society | Energy/Engineering | Government/Law | Health/Medicine | North America -
Lesson/ModuleWeb Portal, Teaching Resource 2017Translating Science Into Policy: The Role of Decision Science
This module introduces the basic techniques of “decision science” that are used in policy making. …
This module introduces the basic techniques of “decision science” that are used in policy making. The materials are mainly prescriptive, focusing on how to make good decisions, but also include examples of the systematic ways that people make poor decisions. The module: (1) surveys the meanings of utility; (2) examines decision making in conditions where risk is not an issue; (3) examines decision making in conditions where risk is an issue because the likelihood of…
Decision Psychology | Decision Analysis | Science/Technology | Preferences/Values | Infectious Diseases | Policy/Regulation | Government/Law | Health/Medicine | Global | North America | College | Graduate | Doctoral | Professional | Critical Thinking/Analysis | Decision Making/Leadership | Policy Translation -
Resource PackPublication, Teaching Resource 2023Resource Pack: Diagnostic Tests, Bayes, and COVID-19
This resource pack provides a curated set of articles, perspectives, and interactives about diagnostic testing …
This resource pack provides a curated set of articles, perspectives, and interactives about diagnostic testing for COVID-19. The pack provides materials that will be particularly useful for educators who are teaching diagnostic test performance, value of information, and probability revision using Bayes’ theorem. The majority of papers focus on PCR or rapid antigen testing on samples obtained from the respiratory tract by nasopharyngeal swab. The mechanism of false negative results (e.g., timing of sample collection…
Decision Analysis | Science/Technology | Probability/Bayes | Test Performance | Value of Information | Health/Medicine | Global | High School | College | Graduate | Doctoral | Professional | Critical Thinking/Analysis | Graphics/Visualization | Quantitative Literacy -
Resource PackWeb Portal, Teaching Resource 2023Resource Pack: Cost-Effectiveness of Screening and Treatment for Hypertension
Hypertension is a relevant example for teaching clinical decision making, diagnostic test performance, positivity criterion, …
Hypertension is a relevant example for teaching clinical decision making, diagnostic test performance, positivity criterion, and cost-effectiveness analysis. This resource pack provides examples of decision analyses and cost-effectiveness analyses for the management and treatment of hypertension, with a predominant focus on the U.S. Analyses are included that predate the 2017 American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association Clinical Practice Guidelines, along with more recent examples that followed release of the guidelines. Resources are also included that…
Decision Analysis | Science/Technology | Preferences/Values | Test Performance | Cost-Effectiveness Analysis | Chronic Disease/Risk | Clinical Care | Economics/Finance | Health/Medicine | North America | Europe | Graduate | Doctoral | Professional | Critical Thinking/Analysis | Policy Translation | Quantitative Literacy -
ArticlePublication 2021Rational Policymaking during a Pandemic
Policymaking during a pandemic can be extremely challenging. As COVID-19 is a new disease and …
Policymaking during a pandemic can be extremely challenging. As COVID-19 is a new disease and its global impacts are unprecedented, decisions are taken in a highly uncertain, complex, and rapidly changing environment. In such a context, in which human lives and the economy are at stake, the authors argue that using ideas and constructs from modern decision theory, even informally, will make policymaking a more responsible and transparent process.
Priority Setting/Ethics | Science/Technology | Decision Theory | Infectious Diseases | Policy/Regulation | Government/Law | Health/Medicine | Global -
ArticlePublication 2021Identifying Credible Sources of Health Information in Social Media: Principles and Attributes
Social media is widely used as a source of health information for the general public. …
Social media is widely used as a source of health information for the general public. The potential for information shared through social media to influence health outcomes necessitates action by social media platforms to enhance access and exposure to high-quality, science-based information. This paper summarizes the work of an independent advisory group convened by the National Academy of Medicine that deliberated and gathered information to develop a set of initial principles and attributes that could…
Decision Psychology | Science/Technology | Preferences/Values | Social Determinants | Policy/Regulation | Culture/Society | Education/Labor | Health/Medicine | North America -
ArticlePublication 2021Why the Backfire Effect Does Not Explain the Durability of Political Misperceptions
Previous research indicated that corrective information can sometimes provoke a so-called “backfire effect” in which …
Previous research indicated that corrective information can sometimes provoke a so-called “backfire effect” in which respondents more strongly endorsed a misperception about a controversial political or scientific issue when their beliefs or predispositions were challenged. This article shows how subsequent research and media coverage seized on this finding, distorting its generality and exaggerating its role relative to other factors in explaining the durability of political misperceptions. To the contrary, an emerging research consensus finds that…
Decision Psychology | Science/Technology | Preferences/Values | Social Determinants | Culture/Society | Government/Law | Health/Medicine | North America -
ArticlePublication 2021Scientific Theory of Gist Communication and Misinformation Resistance
This article presents a framework for understanding how misinformation shapes decision-making, which has cognitive representations …
This article presents a framework for understanding how misinformation shapes decision-making, which has cognitive representations of gist at its core. The author discusses how the framework goes beyond prior work, and how it can be implemented so that valid scientific messages are more likely to be effective, remembered, and shared through social media, while misinformation is resisted. The distinction between mental representations of the rote facts of a message – its verbatim representation – and…
Decision Psychology | Science/Technology | Preferences/Values | Social Determinants | Policy/Regulation | Culture/Society | Health/Medicine | North America