Michael A Cacciatore
Dados Biográficos
| ID | 4123784 |
|---|---|
| NOME | Michael A Cacciatore |
| PRENOMES | Michael A |
| SOBRENOME | Cacciatore |
| ASSINATURA | CACCIATORE M A |
| AFILIAÇÕES | University of Georgia |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-8357-4621 |
| VERIFICADO | Sim |
| TOTAL DE OBRAS | 29 |
| TOTAL DE CITAÇÕES | 60 |
| TOTAL COMO AUTOR | 29 |
| TOTAL COMO EDITOR | 0 |
| PRIMEIRO ANO DE PUBLICAÇÃO | 2011 |
| ANO MAIS RECENTE DE PUBLICAÇÃO | 2026 |
| ÍNDICE H | 4 |
Video Production Attributes as Tactics for Communicating Science on Social Media
The present study empirically tests video production tactics for TikTok- and Instagram-like videos that can be employed to achieve specific, short-term communication objectives. Using the Strategic (Science) Communication as Planned Behavior (SCPB) model as a framework, a between-subjects experiment varies the race/ethnicity of the speaker, the tone of the video, and the inclusion of references to pop culture to examine how these tactics are rela…
Cultivating Interest in Science Through Humor
The use of humor as a tactic for engaging audiences is a promising avenue for effective science communication and outreach. More recently, work has started to consider what happens when scientists use humor to connect with audiences and how contextual factors moderate such effects. Our work tests humor effects in the context of an environmental science stand-up comedy routine. Using data from an experiment embedded in an online survey, we focus o…
Understanding Knowledge Among White, Black, and Hispanic Audiences
Examining the Use of Aggressive Satirical Humor on Perceptions of Trustworthiness in Communication About Renewable Energy
We examined the effects of gentle and harsh satire on perceived trustworthiness of a scientist in an audio clip. Using a three-condition between-subjects survey experiment ( N = 723), we found that respondents in the experimental (vs. control) conditions reported greater perceived aggression, which was negatively associated with perceived trustworthiness of the scientist. The negative effects of the audio clips with satire on perceived trustworth…
Engaging the dismissive
This study aims to understand the influence of mirth, anger, and hope, as elicited by messages with different humor types, on support for global warming action, and the potential moderating role of individual climate concern. Although mirth did not significantly vary across the different stimuli, the analysis found that climate concern moderated the influence of hope on support for global warming actions. The implications of these findings, espec…
Communicating About Renewable Energy With Satire
Satire is often used in science communication, but it is unclear how it influences perceptions of message credibility and reliance on the information. We examine how two satire types (gentle, harsh) influence perceived message credibility and information reliance, which we define as using the information in discussions or for attitudinal and behavioral changes. Using a partial mediation model, we found no effects of gentle satire, but harsh satir…
Covid-19 Vaccination and Public Health Communication Strategies
Widely accepted public health actions and recommendations, particularly those related to vaccines, are critical to U.S. and global responses to infectious disease pandemics, such as COVID-19. For vaccination-related efforts like those involving COVID-19 vaccines, high national compliance is needed. While initial COVID-19 vaccination uptake in the U.S. has been quite high, it quickly became apparent that demographic characteristics, political ideo…
Generating Science Buzz
This study investigates the types of humor embedded in funny scientific posts on social media and their effects on engagement. We mapped the landscape of such posts on Twitter and Instagram through content analysis of their message attributes. Regression analyses were then conducted to examine how different humor types, communicative functions, and visual attributes were associated with liking, retweeting, and commenting. On Twitter, wordplay and…
Humor Can Increase Perceived Communicator Effectiveness Regardless of Race, Gender, and Expertise—If You are Funny Enough
Across a wide range of issues and a variety of sources, scientific information often gets lost in translation, failing to properly inform, educate, and engage publics in a meaningful way. But science communication is like a wine—it is better when it is outside the box. One promising tactic for more effective scientific communication is the use of humor to both engage and educate less interested and knowledgeable citizens on important topics. Here…
Following science on social media
Science communicators have been encouraged to use humor in their online engagement efforts. Yet, humor’s effectiveness for engaging people with science remains an open question. We report the results of an experiment designed to elicit varied levels of mirth in respondents, which was positively associated with perceived likability of the communicator and motivation to follow more science on social media. Furthermore, mirth and perceived likabilit…
Scientists as comedians
Humor has been recommended for scientists looking to conduct communication activities despite relatively little empirical evidence demonstrating its effectiveness. Here, we examine the social environment of a joke through a two-condition experimental design that manipulates the presence or absence of audience laughter. Specifically, we examine how humor experienced from viewing a video clip of a science comedian embedded in an online survey can h…
Predicting Intentions to Engage With Scientific Messages on Twitter
Although humor is a recommended strategy for scientists to connect with publics, there is a lack of empirical evidence concerning its effectiveness. We conduct an experiment to test how funny science on Twitter affects engagement intentions. We find that different humor types caused viewers to experience different levels of mirth, which mediated the relationship between our experimental manipulation and engagement intentions. We also find need fo…
Publics’ Support for Novel and Established Science Issues Linked to Perceived Knowledge and Deference to Science
Laughing With Science
While there is mounting evidence that humor can be an effective means of engaging publics, much remains to be learned about the contextual factors that shape how audiences receive and process humorous scientific content. Analyzing data from a controlled experiment ( N = 217), this study explores the differential impact of exposure to stand-up comedy featuring a scientist that generates considerable laughter from the audience versus stand-up comed…
Is Facebook Making Us Dumber? Exploring Social Media Use as a Predictor of Political Knowledge
With social networking site (SNS) use now ubiquitous in American culture, researchers have started paying attention to its effects in a variety of domains. This study explores the relationships between measures of Facebook use and political knowledge levels using a pair of representative samples of U.S. adults. We find that although the mere use of Facebook was unrelated to political knowledge scores, how Facebook users report engaging with the S…
Opposing ends of the spectrum
Given the ethical questions that surround emerging science, this study is interested in studying public trust in scientific and religious authorities for information about the risks and benefits of science. Using data from a nationally representative survey of American adults, we employ regression analysis to better understand the relationships between several variables—including values, knowledge, and media attention—and trust in religious organ…
Understanding and Increasing Influenza Vaccination Acceptance
Background : The percentage of adults in the U.S. getting seasonal influenza vaccination has not changed significantly since 2013 and remains far below the federal government's 70% target. Objective : This study assessed and identified characteristics, experiences, and beliefs associated with influenza vaccination using a nationally representative survey of 1005 U.S. adults 19 years old and older. Methods : The sample was drawn from the National …
Welcome or Not
The Syrian refugee crisis, started in 2011, has resulted in millions of Syrians fleeing their homes: 6.6 million have been internally displaced and more than 4.6 million have fled the country. This flow of refugees has led to both humanitarian efforts to assist refugees and growing views of refugees as a threat to receiving countries' security and autonomy. Sentiments about the still-growing crisis are increasingly expressed on social media platf…
Analyzing public sentiments online
Recent technological developments have created novel opportunities for analyzing and identifying patterns in large volumes of digital content. However, many content analysis tools require researchers to choose between the validity of human-based coding and the ability to analyze large volumes of content through computer-based techniques. This study argues for the use of supervised content analysis tools that capitalize on the strengths of human- …
The lure of rationality
Science communication has been historically predicated on the knowledge deficit model. Yet, empirical research has shown that public communication of science is more complex than what the knowledge deficit model suggests. In this essay, we pose four lines of reasoning and present empirical data for why we believe the deficit model still persists in public communication of science. First, we posit that scientists' training results in the belief th…
The End of Framing as we Know it … and the Future of Media Effects
Framing has become one of the most popular areas of research for scholars in communication and a wide variety of other disciplines, such as psychology, behavioral economics, political science, and sociology. Particularly in the communication discipline, however, ambiguities surrounding how we conceptualize and therefore operationalize framing have begun to overlap with other media effects models to a point that is dysfunctional. This article prov…
Media-Source Preferences and Trust Building
This study investigates the critical role of media-source preferences in building trust in organizations. Data from the 2013 Edelman Trust Barometer survey was used to analyze the relationship between stakeholders’ media use patterns and their trust in different types of organizations. Specifically, we focus our analysis on eight countries (four Western ones and the BRIC nations). Results suggest that media-source preferences do have an impact on…
Another (methodological) look at knowledge gaps and the Internet’s potential for closing them
Members of the World Economic Forum recently identified the economic, health and knowledge disparities between the “haves” and “have-nots” in the world as one of the central risks in the global risk landscape. However, research on the role of communication in reducing knowledge disparities for emerging technologies is rare. More importantly, little research has tracked knowledge gaps about emerging technologies in representative populations over …
Misperceptions in Polarized Politics
Many Americans hold distorted views of elected officials and, as our study shows, the blame is due partly to our ideological biases and partly to mass media. Analyzing a nationally representative online survey, we corroborate recent research that found that one in five Americans still believe president Barack Obama is a Muslim and that almost seven in ten mistakenly think Sarah Palin, and not Saturday Night Live ’s Tina Fey, was the first to say …
Inequalities in Scientific Understanding
This study assesses two key types of knowledge assessments, factual and perceived knowledge, in the study of knowledge gaps. In addition, we distinguish between communication channels in exploring the phenomenon, examining nanotechnology knowledge gaps based on levels of attention to traditional media, science blog use, and the frequency of interpersonal discussion. Using regression analysis, we find that how researchers measure knowledge can sig…
Coverage of emerging technologies
This study explores differences in volume of coverage and thematic content between US print news and online media coverage for an emerging technology – nanotechnology. We found that while American print news media and Google News coverage of this emerging technology has peaked and started to decline, Google Blog Search coverage of nanotechnology is still growing. Additionally, our data show discrepancies in thematic content of online and print ne…
Public attitudes toward biofuels
Despite large-scale investments and government mandates to expand biofuels development and infrastructure in the United States, little is known about how the public conceives of this alternative fuel technology. This study examines public opinion of biofuels by focusing on citizen knowledge and the motivated processing of media information. Specifically, we explore the direct effects of biofuels knowledge and the moderating effect of partisanship…
Publics’ Support for Novel and Established Science Issues Linked to Perceived Knowledge and Deference to Science
Predicting Intentions to Engage With Scientific Messages on Twitter
Although humor is a recommended strategy for scientists to connect with publics, there is a lack of empirical evidence concerning its effectiveness. We conduct an experiment to test how funny science on Twitter affects engagement intentions. We find that different humor types caused viewers to experience different levels of mirth, which mediated the relationship between our experimental manipulation and engagement intentions. We also find need fo…
Misperceptions in Polarized Politics
Many Americans hold distorted views of elected officials and, as our study shows, the blame is due partly to our ideological biases and partly to mass media. Analyzing a nationally representative online survey, we corroborate recent research that found that one in five Americans still believe president Barack Obama is a Muslim and that almost seven in ten mistakenly think Sarah Palin, and not Saturday Night Live ’s Tina Fey, was the first to say …
Laughing With Science
While there is mounting evidence that humor can be an effective means of engaging publics, much remains to be learned about the contextual factors that shape how audiences receive and process humorous scientific content. Analyzing data from a controlled experiment ( N = 217), this study explores the differential impact of exposure to stand-up comedy featuring a scientist that generates considerable laughter from the audience versus stand-up comed…
Welcome or Not
The Syrian refugee crisis, started in 2011, has resulted in millions of Syrians fleeing their homes: 6.6 million have been internally displaced and more than 4.6 million have fled the country. This flow of refugees has led to both humanitarian efforts to assist refugees and growing views of refugees as a threat to receiving countries' security and autonomy. Sentiments about the still-growing crisis are increasingly expressed on social media platf…
Inequalities in Scientific Understanding
This study assesses two key types of knowledge assessments, factual and perceived knowledge, in the study of knowledge gaps. In addition, we distinguish between communication channels in exploring the phenomenon, examining nanotechnology knowledge gaps based on levels of attention to traditional media, science blog use, and the frequency of interpersonal discussion. Using regression analysis, we find that how researchers measure knowledge can sig…
Media-Source Preferences and Trust Building
This study investigates the critical role of media-source preferences in building trust in organizations. Data from the 2013 Edelman Trust Barometer survey was used to analyze the relationship between stakeholders’ media use patterns and their trust in different types of organizations. Specifically, we focus our analysis on eight countries (four Western ones and the BRIC nations). Results suggest that media-source preferences do have an impact on…
Generating Science Buzz
This study investigates the types of humor embedded in funny scientific posts on social media and their effects on engagement. We mapped the landscape of such posts on Twitter and Instagram through content analysis of their message attributes. Regression analyses were then conducted to examine how different humor types, communicative functions, and visual attributes were associated with liking, retweeting, and commenting. On Twitter, wordplay and…
From enabling technology to applications
Public opinion research on nanotechnology has primarily focused on judgments of abstract risks and benefits, rather than attitudes toward specific applications. This approach will be less useful as nanotechnology morphs from a scientific breakthrough into an enabling technology whose impacts on people’s lives come in the form of concrete applications in specific areas. This study examines the mental connections or associations US citizens have wi…
Measuring risk/benefit perceptions of emerging technologies and their potential impact on communication of public opinion toward science
This study presents a systematic comparison of two alternative measures of citizens’ perceptions of risks and benefits of emerging technologies. By focusing on two specific issues (nanotechnology and biofuels), we derive several insights for the measurement of public views of science. Most importantly, our analyses reveal that relying on global, single-item measures may lead to invalid inferences regarding external influences on public perception…
Coverage of emerging technologies
This study explores differences in volume of coverage and thematic content between US print news and online media coverage for an emerging technology – nanotechnology. We found that while American print news media and Google News coverage of this emerging technology has peaked and started to decline, Google Blog Search coverage of nanotechnology is still growing. Additionally, our data show discrepancies in thematic content of online and print ne…
Public attitudes toward biofuels
Despite large-scale investments and government mandates to expand biofuels development and infrastructure in the United States, little is known about how the public conceives of this alternative fuel technology. This study examines public opinion of biofuels by focusing on citizen knowledge and the motivated processing of media information. Specifically, we explore the direct effects of biofuels knowledge and the moderating effect of partisanship…
Another (methodological) look at knowledge gaps and the Internet’s potential for closing them
Members of the World Economic Forum recently identified the economic, health and knowledge disparities between the “haves” and “have-nots” in the world as one of the central risks in the global risk landscape. However, research on the role of communication in reducing knowledge disparities for emerging technologies is rare. More importantly, little research has tracked knowledge gaps about emerging technologies in representative populations over …
Misperceptions in Polarized Politics
Many Americans hold distorted views of elected officials and, as our study shows, the blame is due partly to our ideological biases and partly to mass media. Analyzing a nationally representative online survey, we corroborate recent research that found that one in five Americans still believe president Barack Obama is a Muslim and that almost seven in ten mistakenly think Sarah Palin, and not Saturday Night Live ’s Tina Fey, was the first to say …
Inequalities in Scientific Understanding
This study assesses two key types of knowledge assessments, factual and perceived knowledge, in the study of knowledge gaps. In addition, we distinguish between communication channels in exploring the phenomenon, examining nanotechnology knowledge gaps based on levels of attention to traditional media, science blog use, and the frequency of interpersonal discussion. Using regression analysis, we find that how researchers measure knowledge can sig…
The End of Framing as we Know it … and the Future of Media Effects
Framing has become one of the most popular areas of research for scholars in communication and a wide variety of other disciplines, such as psychology, behavioral economics, political science, and sociology. Particularly in the communication discipline, however, ambiguities surrounding how we conceptualize and therefore operationalize framing have begun to overlap with other media effects models to a point that is dysfunctional. This article prov…
Media-Source Preferences and Trust Building
This study investigates the critical role of media-source preferences in building trust in organizations. Data from the 2013 Edelman Trust Barometer survey was used to analyze the relationship between stakeholders’ media use patterns and their trust in different types of organizations. Specifically, we focus our analysis on eight countries (four Western ones and the BRIC nations). Results suggest that media-source preferences do have an impact on…
The lure of rationality
Science communication has been historically predicated on the knowledge deficit model. Yet, empirical research has shown that public communication of science is more complex than what the knowledge deficit model suggests. In this essay, we pose four lines of reasoning and present empirical data for why we believe the deficit model still persists in public communication of science. First, we posit that scientists' training results in the belief th…
Analyzing public sentiments online
Recent technological developments have created novel opportunities for analyzing and identifying patterns in large volumes of digital content. However, many content analysis tools require researchers to choose between the validity of human-based coding and the ability to analyze large volumes of content through computer-based techniques. This study argues for the use of supervised content analysis tools that capitalize on the strengths of human- …
Is Facebook Making Us Dumber? Exploring Social Media Use as a Predictor of Political Knowledge
With social networking site (SNS) use now ubiquitous in American culture, researchers have started paying attention to its effects in a variety of domains. This study explores the relationships between measures of Facebook use and political knowledge levels using a pair of representative samples of U.S. adults. We find that although the mere use of Facebook was unrelated to political knowledge scores, how Facebook users report engaging with the S…
Opposing ends of the spectrum
Given the ethical questions that surround emerging science, this study is interested in studying public trust in scientific and religious authorities for information about the risks and benefits of science. Using data from a nationally representative survey of American adults, we employ regression analysis to better understand the relationships between several variables—including values, knowledge, and media attention—and trust in religious organ…
Understanding and Increasing Influenza Vaccination Acceptance
Background : The percentage of adults in the U.S. getting seasonal influenza vaccination has not changed significantly since 2013 and remains far below the federal government's 70% target. Objective : This study assessed and identified characteristics, experiences, and beliefs associated with influenza vaccination using a nationally representative survey of 1005 U.S. adults 19 years old and older. Methods : The sample was drawn from the National …
Welcome or Not
The Syrian refugee crisis, started in 2011, has resulted in millions of Syrians fleeing their homes: 6.6 million have been internally displaced and more than 4.6 million have fled the country. This flow of refugees has led to both humanitarian efforts to assist refugees and growing views of refugees as a threat to receiving countries' security and autonomy. Sentiments about the still-growing crisis are increasingly expressed on social media platf…
Scientists as comedians
Humor has been recommended for scientists looking to conduct communication activities despite relatively little empirical evidence demonstrating its effectiveness. Here, we examine the social environment of a joke through a two-condition experimental design that manipulates the presence or absence of audience laughter. Specifically, we examine how humor experienced from viewing a video clip of a science comedian embedded in an online survey can h…
Predicting Intentions to Engage With Scientific Messages on Twitter
Although humor is a recommended strategy for scientists to connect with publics, there is a lack of empirical evidence concerning its effectiveness. We conduct an experiment to test how funny science on Twitter affects engagement intentions. We find that different humor types caused viewers to experience different levels of mirth, which mediated the relationship between our experimental manipulation and engagement intentions. We also find need fo…
Publics’ Support for Novel and Established Science Issues Linked to Perceived Knowledge and Deference to Science
Laughing With Science
While there is mounting evidence that humor can be an effective means of engaging publics, much remains to be learned about the contextual factors that shape how audiences receive and process humorous scientific content. Analyzing data from a controlled experiment ( N = 217), this study explores the differential impact of exposure to stand-up comedy featuring a scientist that generates considerable laughter from the audience versus stand-up comed…
Following science on social media
Science communicators have been encouraged to use humor in their online engagement efforts. Yet, humor’s effectiveness for engaging people with science remains an open question. We report the results of an experiment designed to elicit varied levels of mirth in respondents, which was positively associated with perceived likability of the communicator and motivation to follow more science on social media. Furthermore, mirth and perceived likabilit…
Covid-19 Vaccination and Public Health Communication Strategies
Widely accepted public health actions and recommendations, particularly those related to vaccines, are critical to U.S. and global responses to infectious disease pandemics, such as COVID-19. For vaccination-related efforts like those involving COVID-19 vaccines, high national compliance is needed. While initial COVID-19 vaccination uptake in the U.S. has been quite high, it quickly became apparent that demographic characteristics, political ideo…
Generating Science Buzz
This study investigates the types of humor embedded in funny scientific posts on social media and their effects on engagement. We mapped the landscape of such posts on Twitter and Instagram through content analysis of their message attributes. Regression analyses were then conducted to examine how different humor types, communicative functions, and visual attributes were associated with liking, retweeting, and commenting. On Twitter, wordplay and…
Humor Can Increase Perceived Communicator Effectiveness Regardless of Race, Gender, and Expertise—If You are Funny Enough
Across a wide range of issues and a variety of sources, scientific information often gets lost in translation, failing to properly inform, educate, and engage publics in a meaningful way. But science communication is like a wine—it is better when it is outside the box. One promising tactic for more effective scientific communication is the use of humor to both engage and educate less interested and knowledgeable citizens on important topics. Here…
Engaging the dismissive
This study aims to understand the influence of mirth, anger, and hope, as elicited by messages with different humor types, on support for global warming action, and the potential moderating role of individual climate concern. Although mirth did not significantly vary across the different stimuli, the analysis found that climate concern moderated the influence of hope on support for global warming actions. The implications of these findings, espec…
Communicating About Renewable Energy With Satire
Satire is often used in science communication, but it is unclear how it influences perceptions of message credibility and reliance on the information. We examine how two satire types (gentle, harsh) influence perceived message credibility and information reliance, which we define as using the information in discussions or for attitudinal and behavioral changes. Using a partial mediation model, we found no effects of gentle satire, but harsh satir…
Psychology (22 obras) · Political science (17 obras) · Social Psychology (14 obras) · Sociology (13 obras) · Computer Science (11 obras) · Media Influence and Health (11 obras) · Public relations (11 obras) · Climate Change Communication and Perception (10 obras) · Humor Studies and Applications (10 obras) · Business (8 obras)