Graham N Dixon
Biographic Data
| ID | 3771429 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Graham N Dixon |
| GIVEN NAMES | Graham N |
| FAMILY NAME | Dixon |
| SIGNATURE | DIXON G N |
| AFFILIATIONS | The Ohio State University |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 6 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 34 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 6 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2013 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2024 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
Challenges to correcting pluralistic ignorance
For many policy issues, people holding the majority opinion often do not act in accordance with their beliefs. While underestimating public opinion appears as a likely cause, correcting this misperception often fails to motivate those in the majority to act. Investigating further, we surveyed a nationally representative sample (N = 1,000) of Republican voters about vaccination. Despite a majority supporting vaccines, Republicans on average undere…
Fighting the Infodemic on Two Fronts
Actors aiming to remedy the effects of health misinformation often issue corrections focused on individual outcomes (i.e., promoting individual health behaviors) rather than societal outcomes (i.e., reducing issue polarization). Yet, for highly politicized health crises like the COVID-19 pandemic, such interventions run the risk of exacerbating societal cleavages, driving those holding opposing views further apart from one another. Interventions …
The Effects of Jargon on Processing Fluency, Self-Perceptions, and Scientific Engagement
In this experiment ( N = 650), we integrate ideas from the literatures on metacognition and self-perception to explain why the use of jargon negatively affects engagement with science topics. We offer empirical evidence that the presence of jargon disrupts people's ability to fluently process scientific information, even when definitions for the jargon terms are provided. We find that jargon use affects individuals' social identification with the…
Jargon as a barrier to effective science communication
In this experiment ( N = 650), we examine the negative consequences of jargon on individuals’ perceptions of emerging scientific technology and aim to explain these effects. We find that the presence of jargon impairs people’s ability to process scientific information, and that this impairment leads to greater motivated resistance to persuasion, increased risk perceptions, and lower support for technology adoption. These findings suggest that the…
The Power of a Picture
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 whethe…
Heightening Uncertainty Around Certain Science
To investigate how balanced presentations of the autism-vaccine controversy influence judgments of vaccine risk, we randomly assigned 327 participants to news articles that presented balanced claims both for and against an autism-vaccine link, antilink claims only, prolink claims only, or unrelated information. Readers in the balanced condition were less certain that vaccines did not cause autism and more likely to believe experts were divided on…
Heightening Uncertainty Around Certain Science
To investigate how balanced presentations of the autism-vaccine controversy influence judgments of vaccine risk, we randomly assigned 327 participants to news articles that presented balanced claims both for and against an autism-vaccine link, antilink claims only, prolink claims only, or unrelated information. Readers in the balanced condition were less certain that vaccines did not cause autism and more likely to believe experts were divided on…
The Effects of Jargon on Processing Fluency, Self-Perceptions, and Scientific Engagement
In this experiment ( N = 650), we integrate ideas from the literatures on metacognition and self-perception to explain why the use of jargon negatively affects engagement with science topics. We offer empirical evidence that the presence of jargon disrupts people's ability to fluently process scientific information, even when definitions for the jargon terms are provided. We find that jargon use affects individuals' social identification with the…
Challenges to correcting pluralistic ignorance
For many policy issues, people holding the majority opinion often do not act in accordance with their beliefs. While underestimating public opinion appears as a likely cause, correcting this misperception often fails to motivate those in the majority to act. Investigating further, we surveyed a nationally representative sample (N = 1,000) of Republican voters about vaccination. Despite a majority supporting vaccines, Republicans on average undere…
Fighting the Infodemic on Two Fronts
Actors aiming to remedy the effects of health misinformation often issue corrections focused on individual outcomes (i.e., promoting individual health behaviors) rather than societal outcomes (i.e., reducing issue polarization). Yet, for highly politicized health crises like the COVID-19 pandemic, such interventions run the risk of exacerbating societal cleavages, driving those holding opposing views further apart from one another. Interventions …
Heightening Uncertainty Around Certain Science
To investigate how balanced presentations of the autism-vaccine controversy influence judgments of vaccine risk, we randomly assigned 327 participants to news articles that presented balanced claims both for and against an autism-vaccine link, antilink claims only, prolink claims only, or unrelated information. Readers in the balanced condition were less certain that vaccines did not cause autism and more likely to believe experts were divided on…
The Power of a Picture
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 whethe…
Jargon as a barrier to effective science communication
In this experiment ( N = 650), we examine the negative consequences of jargon on individuals’ perceptions of emerging scientific technology and aim to explain these effects. We find that the presence of jargon impairs people’s ability to process scientific information, and that this impairment leads to greater motivated resistance to persuasion, increased risk perceptions, and lower support for technology adoption. These findings suggest that the…
The Effects of Jargon on Processing Fluency, Self-Perceptions, and Scientific Engagement
In this experiment ( N = 650), we integrate ideas from the literatures on metacognition and self-perception to explain why the use of jargon negatively affects engagement with science topics. We offer empirical evidence that the presence of jargon disrupts people's ability to fluently process scientific information, even when definitions for the jargon terms are provided. We find that jargon use affects individuals' social identification with the…
Fighting the Infodemic on Two Fronts
Actors aiming to remedy the effects of health misinformation often issue corrections focused on individual outcomes (i.e., promoting individual health behaviors) rather than societal outcomes (i.e., reducing issue polarization). Yet, for highly politicized health crises like the COVID-19 pandemic, such interventions run the risk of exacerbating societal cleavages, driving those holding opposing views further apart from one another. Interventions …
Challenges to correcting pluralistic ignorance
For many policy issues, people holding the majority opinion often do not act in accordance with their beliefs. While underestimating public opinion appears as a likely cause, correcting this misperception often fails to motivate those in the majority to act. Investigating further, we surveyed a nationally representative sample (N = 1,000) of Republican voters about vaccination. Despite a majority supporting vaccines, Republicans on average undere…
Misinformation and Its Impacts (6 works) · Psychology (5 works) · Climate Change Communication and Perception (4 works) · Media Influence and Health (4 works) · Political science (4 works) · Social Psychology (4 works) · Cognition (3 works) · Law (3 works) · Cognitive psychology (2 works) · Epistemology (2 works)