Asheley R Landrum
Biographic Data
| ID | 1193258 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Asheley R Landrum |
| GIVEN NAMES | Asheley R |
| FAMILY NAME | Landrum |
| SIGNATURE | LANDRUM A R |
| AFFILIATIONS | Texas Tech University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-3074-804X |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 18 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 36 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 17 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2016 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
Too sure or not sure enough? Trust may hinge on scientists’ uncertainty matching knowledgeable audiences’ tolerance for it
Uncertainty, though integral to scientific practice and advancement, is routinely omitted from science communication. While extensive study has uncovered the effect of this in politicized scientific fields, its influence in unpoliticized sciences is murkier. This survey-experiment study in the USA investigates audience perceptions of communicator trustworthiness when reading excerpts of neuroimaging journalism portraying the field as (a) uncertai…
Extreme Weather Experiences, Emotional Reactions to Messages, and Support for Proclimate Policies
Climate communication can be pivotal in shaping public attitudes and behaviors toward energy policies. One potential pathway for effective climate communication is leveraging the increasing frequency of extreme weather events, which many personally experience. Emotions elicited by climate messaging also appear to influence public attitudes, yet studies exploring the impacts of such emotional responses remain scarce. Through a secondary analysis o…
New Directions in Science and Environmental Communication
Charting cognition
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 concept maps. Such snapshots, particularly as viewed through the lens of narrative sense-making theory, c…
When Science Journalism is Awesome
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 as well as a “business-as-usual” article to use in the survey, and we measured participants’ experie…
Are Women a Missing Audience for Science on YouTube? An Exploratory Study
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 critical need for research aiming to aid in our understanding of these gender differences. This study pr…
Engaging Audiences with Behind-the-Scenes Science Media
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 production. The results suggest that professionally produced behind-the-scenes content may help broad…
Knowledge about the nature of science increases public acceptance of science regardless of identity factors
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 the US public ( N = 1500), along with questions about the acceptance of evolution, climate change, a…
The Development and Validation of the Social Enterprise of Science Index (Sesi)
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. We posit that this understanding of the scientific enterprise is an important source for the public’…
Third-Person Perceptions and Calls for Censorship of Flat Earth Videos on YouTube
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 (TPP), and the consequences from those perceptions, such as calls for censorship, are called third-per…
Open Questions in Scientific Consensus Messaging Research
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 focus on some of the important questions that scholars might consider when researching scientific consen…
Polarized U.S. publics, Pope Francis, and climate change
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 Effect,” in which U.S. Conservatives (and Conservative Catholics in particular) would show greater co…
Headline Format Influences Evaluation of, but Not Engagement with, Environmental News
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 headlines, forward-referencing headlines, and question-based headlines. Although headline format did n…
Examining the Impact of Expert Voices
© 2018, © 2018 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. None
Public perceptions of who counts as a scientist for controversial science
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 science knowledge affect who the US public believes is a scientist in these domains. Our results sug…
The role of conspiracy mentality in denial of science and susceptibility to viral deception about science
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 of individual factors such as their science literacy, political ideology, and religiosity. This study…
Science Curiosity and Political Information Processing
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 comprehension—of which science curiosity, if it exists, would presumably be one—do not mitigate politically bia…
Culturally antagonistic memes and the Zika virus
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 reinforce their group commitments. The defect is the failure of these two dynamics, when combined, to …
Science Curiosity and Political Information Processing
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 comprehension—of which science curiosity, if it exists, would presumably be one—do not mitigate politically bia…
The role of conspiracy mentality in denial of science and susceptibility to viral deception about science
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 of individual factors such as their science literacy, political ideology, and religiosity. This study…
Headline Format Influences Evaluation of, but Not Engagement with, Environmental News
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 headlines, forward-referencing headlines, and question-based headlines. Although headline format did n…
Culturally antagonistic memes and the Zika virus
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 reinforce their group commitments. The defect is the failure of these two dynamics, when combined, to …
Polarized U.S. publics, Pope Francis, and climate change
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 Effect,” in which U.S. Conservatives (and Conservative Catholics in particular) would show greater co…
Culturally antagonistic memes and the Zika virus
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 reinforce their group commitments. The defect is the failure of these two dynamics, when combined, to …
Science Curiosity and Political Information Processing
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 comprehension—of which science curiosity, if it exists, would presumably be one—do not mitigate politically bia…
Examining the Impact of Expert Voices
© 2018, © 2018 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. None
Public perceptions of who counts as a scientist for controversial science
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 science knowledge affect who the US public believes is a scientist in these domains. Our results sug…
The role of conspiracy mentality in denial of science and susceptibility to viral deception about science
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 of individual factors such as their science literacy, political ideology, and religiosity. This study…
Third-Person Perceptions and Calls for Censorship of Flat Earth Videos on YouTube
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 (TPP), and the consequences from those perceptions, such as calls for censorship, are called third-per…
Open Questions in Scientific Consensus Messaging Research
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 focus on some of the important questions that scholars might consider when researching scientific consen…
Polarized U.S. publics, Pope Francis, and climate change
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 Effect,” in which U.S. Conservatives (and Conservative Catholics in particular) would show greater co…
Headline Format Influences Evaluation of, but Not Engagement with, Environmental News
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 headlines, forward-referencing headlines, and question-based headlines. Although headline format did n…
Are Women a Missing Audience for Science on YouTube? An Exploratory Study
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 critical need for research aiming to aid in our understanding of these gender differences. This study pr…
Engaging Audiences with Behind-the-Scenes Science Media
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 production. The results suggest that professionally produced behind-the-scenes content may help broad…
Knowledge about the nature of science increases public acceptance of science regardless of identity factors
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 the US public ( N = 1500), along with questions about the acceptance of evolution, climate change, a…
The Development and Validation of the Social Enterprise of Science Index (Sesi)
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. We posit that this understanding of the scientific enterprise is an important source for the public’…
New Directions in Science and Environmental Communication
Charting cognition
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 concept maps. Such snapshots, particularly as viewed through the lens of narrative sense-making theory, c…
When Science Journalism is Awesome
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 as well as a “business-as-usual” article to use in the survey, and we measured participants’ experie…
Extreme Weather Experiences, Emotional Reactions to Messages, and Support for Proclimate Policies
Climate communication can be pivotal in shaping public attitudes and behaviors toward energy policies. One potential pathway for effective climate communication is leveraging the increasing frequency of extreme weather events, which many personally experience. Emotions elicited by climate messaging also appear to influence public attitudes, yet studies exploring the impacts of such emotional responses remain scarce. Through a secondary analysis o…
Too sure or not sure enough? Trust may hinge on scientists’ uncertainty matching knowledgeable audiences’ tolerance for it
Uncertainty, though integral to scientific practice and advancement, is routinely omitted from science communication. While extensive study has uncovered the effect of this in politicized scientific fields, its influence in unpoliticized sciences is murkier. This survey-experiment study in the USA investigates audience perceptions of communicator trustworthiness when reading excerpts of neuroimaging journalism portraying the field as (a) uncertai…
Psychology (13 works) · Misinformation and Its Impacts (12 works) · Political science (11 works) · Social Psychology (11 works) · Climate Change Communication and Perception (9 works) · Sociology (8 works) · Law (6 works) · Computer Science (5 works) · Curiosity (5 works) · Perception (5 works)