Whose Science Do You Believe? Explaining Trust in Sources of Scientific Information About the Environment

Science Communication

Volumn 35, Issue 1, 2013, Pages 115-137

  Brewer, Paul R ^a   Ley, Barbara L ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF DELAWARE   (United States)

Author keywords

environmental communication; political; public perception of; scientific; social

Indexed keywords

EID: 84872723330     PISSN: 10755470     EISSN: 15528545     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1177/1075547012441691     Document Type: Article

References (67)

1. Bennett S. E.,Rhine S. L.,Flickinger R. S.Assessing Americans' opinions about the news media's fairness in 1996 and 1998.Political Communication. 2001;18:163-182.
2. Bennett S. E.,Rhine S. L.,Flickinger R. S.,Bennett L. L. M."Video malaise" revisited: Public trust in the media and government.Harvard International Journal of Press/Politics. 1999;4:8-23.
3. Besley J. C.,Shanahan J.Media attention and exposure in relation to support for agricultural biotechnology.Science Communication. 2005;26:347-367.
4. Bickerstaff K.,Lorenzoni I.,Pidgeon N. F.,Poortinga W.,Simmons P.Reframing nuclear power in the UK energy debate: Nuclear power, climate change mitigation, and radioactive waste.Public Understanding of Science. 2008;17:145-169.
5. Bord R. J.,O'Connor R. E.Determinants of risk perceptions of a hazardous waste site.Risk Analysis. 1992;12:411-416.
6. Bord R. J.,O'Connor R. E.,Fisher A.In what sense does the public need to understand global climate change?.Public Understanding of Science. 2000;9:205-218.
7. Bostrom A.,Morgan M. G.,Fischhoff B.,Read D.What do people know about global climate change? 1. Mental models.Risk Analysis. 1994;14:959-970.
8. Boykoff M. T.,Boykoff J. M.Balance as bias: Global warming and the US prestige press.Global Environmental Change. 2004;14:125-136.
9. Brehm J.,Rahn W.Individual-level evidence for the causes and consequences of social capital.American Journal of Political Science. 1997;41:999-1023.
10. Brossard D.,Nisbet M. C.Deference to scientific authority among a low information public: Understanding U.S. opinion on agricultural biotechnology.International Journal of Public Opinion Research. 2007;19:24-52.
11. Brossard D.,Shanahan J.Do citizens want to have their say? Media, agricultural biotechnology, and authoritarian views of democratic processes in science.Mass Communication and Society. 2003;6:291-312.
12. Brown P.Toxic exposures: Contested illnesses and the environmental health movement. New York, NY: Columbia University Press; 2007:.
13. Cappella J. N.,Jamieson K. H.Spiral of cynicism: The press and the public good. New York, NY: Oxford University Press; 1997:.
14. Chanley V. A.,Rudolph T. J.,Rahn W. M.The origins and consequences of public trust in government.Public Opinion Quarterly. 2000;64:239-256.
15. Cobb M. D.,Macoubrie J.Public perceptions about nanotechnology: Risks, benefits, and trust.Journal of Nanoparticle Research. 2004;6:395-405.
16. Corbie-Smith G.,Thomas S. B.,St. George D. M. M.Distrust, race, and research.Archives of Internal Medicine. 2002;162:2458-2463.
17. Davidson D. J.,Freudenburg W. R.Gender and environmental risk concerns: A review and analysis of available research.Environment & Behavior. 1996;28:302-339.
18. Dunlap R. E.,Van Liere K. D.,Mertig A. G.,Jones R. E.Measuring endorsement of the new ecological paradigm: A revised NEP scale.Journal of Social Issues. 2000;56:425-442.
19. Eagly A. H.,Chaiken S.The psychology of attitudes. New York, NY: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich; 1993:.
20. Earle M.,Siegrist T. C.,Gutscher H.Trust in risk management: Uncertainty and scepticism in the public mind. Earle M.Siegrist T. C.Gutscher H., ed. London, England: Earthscan; 2010:1-49.
21. Flynn J.,Slovic P.,Mertz C. K.Gender, race, and perceptions of environmental health risks.Risk Analysis. 1994;14:1101-1108.
22. Freimuth V. S.,Quinn S. C.,Thomas S. B.,Cole G.,Zook E.,Duncan T.African Americans' views on research and the Tuskegee Syphilis Study.Social Science & Medicine. 2001;52:797-808.
23. Gaskell G.,Einsiedel E.,Hallman W.,Priest S. H.,Jackson J.,Olsthoorn J.Social values and the governance of science.Science. 2005;310:1908-1909.
24. Gutteling J.,Hanssen L.,van der Veer N.,Seydel E.Trust in governance and the acceptance of genetically modified food in the Netherlands.Public Understanding of Science. 2006;15:103-112.
25. Hetherington M. J.The political relevance of political trust.American Political Science Review. 1998;92:791-808.
26. Hetherington M. J.Why trust matters: Declining political trust and the demise of American liberalism. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press; 2005:.
27. Ho S. S.,Brossard D.,Scheufele D. A.Effects of value predispositions, mass media use, and knowledge on public attitudes toward embryonic stem cell research.International Journal of Public Opinion Research. 2008;20:171-192.
28. Hornig S.Television's Nova and the construction of scientific truth.Critical Studies in Mass Communication. 1990;7:11-23.
29. Jasanoff S.The fifth branch: Science advisers as policymakers. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; 1994:.
30. Jones D. A.Why Americans don't trust the media: A preliminary analysis.Harvard International Journal of Press/Politics. 2004;9:60-75.
31. Kellstedt P. M.,Zahran S.,Vedlitz A.Personal efficacy, the information environment, and attitudes toward global warming and climate change in the United States.Risk Analysis. 2008;28:113-126.
32. Lee C.,Scheufele D. A.,Lewenstein B. V.Public attitudes toward emerging technologies: Examining the interactive effects of cognitions and affect on public attitudes toward nanotechnology.Science Communication. 2005;27:240-267.
33. Lee T.The liberal media myth revisited: An examination of factors influencing perceptions of media bias.Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media. 2005;49:43-64.
34. Ley B. L.From pink to green: Disease prevention and the environmental breast cancer movement. Piscataway, NJ: Rutgers University Press; 2009:.
35. Lichter S. R.,Rothman S.Environmental cancer: A political disease?. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press; 1999:.
36. Liu H.,Priest S.Understanding public support for stem cell research: Media communication, interpersonal communication, and trust in key actors.Public Understanding of Science. 2009;18:704-718.
37. Malka A.,Krosnick J. A.,Langer G.The association of knowledge with concern about global warming: Trusted information sources shape public thinking.Risk Analysis. 2009;29:633-647.
38. Mazur A.,Lee J.Sounding the global alarm: Environmental issues in U.S. national news.Social Studies of Science. 1993;23:681-720.
39. McCright A. M.,Dunlap R. E.Challenging global warming as a social problem: An analysis of the conservative movement's counter-claims.Social Problems. 2000;47:499-522.
40. McCright A. M.,Dunlap R. E.Defeating Kyoto: The conservative movement's impact on U.S. climate change policy.Social Problems. 2003;50:348-373.
41. Miller A. H.,Goldbenberg E. N.,Erbing L.Type-set politics: Impact of newspapers on public confidence.American Political Science Review. 1979;73:67-84.
42. Nelkin D.Selling science: How the press covers science and technology. New York, NY: Freeman; 1995:.
43. Nisbet M. C.The competition for worldviews: Values, information, and public support for stem cell research.International Journal of Public Opinion Research. 2005;17:90-112.
44. Nisbet M. C.,Goidel R. K.Understanding citizen perceptions of science controversy: Bridging the ethnographic-survey research divide.Public Understanding of Science. 2007;16:421-440.
45. Nisbet M. C.,Lewenstein B. V.Biotechnology and the American media: The policy process and the elite press, 1970 to 1999.Science Communication. 2002;23:359-391.
46. Nisbet M. C.,Myers T.Twenty years of public opinion about global warming.Public Opinion Quarterly. 2007;71:444-470.
47. Nisbet M. C.,Scheufele D. A.,Shanahan J.,Moy P.,Brossard D.,Lewenstein B. V.Knowledge, reservation, or promise? A media effects model for public perceptions of science and technology.Communication Research. 2002;29:584-608.
48. O'Connor R. E.,Bord R. J.,Fisher A.Risk perceptions, general environmental beliefs, and willingness to address climate change.Risk Analysis. 1999;19:461-471.
49. O'Connor R. E.,Bord R. J.,Fisher A.,Staneva M.,Kozhouharova-Zhivkova V.,Dobreva S.Determinants of support for climate change policies in Bulgaria and the U.S.A.Risk, Decision and Policy. 1999;4:255-269.
50. Petty R. E.,Cacioppo J. T.Communication and persuasion: Central and peripheral routes to attitude change. New York, NY: Springer-Verlag; 1986:.
51. Pew Research Center for the People and the Press. (2009). Public praises science; scientists fault public, media. Retrieved from http://people-press.org/report/528/.
52. Pew Research Center for the People and the Press. (2010). Obama's ratings little affected by political turmoil. Retrieved from http://people-press.org/report/627/.
53. Pinch T. J.,Bijker W. E.The social construction of facts and artefacts: Or, how the sociology of science and the sociology of technology might benefit each other.Social Studies of Science. 1984;14:399-441.
54. Poortinga W.,Pidgeon N. F.Exploring the dimensionality of trust in risk regulation.Risk Analysis. 2003;23:961-972.
55. Priest S. H.Misplaced faith: Communication variables as predictors of encouragement for biotechnology development.Science Communication. 2001;23:97-110.
56. Priest S. H.,Bonfadelli H.,Rusanan M.The "trust gap" hypothesis: Predicting support for biotechnology across national cultures as a function of trust in actors.Risk Analysis. 2003;23:751-766.
57. Rahn W. M.,Transue J. E.Social trust and value change: The decline of social capital in American youth, 1976-1995.Political Psychology. 1998;19:545-565.
58. Renn O.,Levine D.Communicating risks to the public. Kasperson R. E.Stallen P. J. M., ed. Norwell, MA: Kluwer Academic; 1991:175-218.
59. Salomone K. L.,Greenberg M. R.,Sandman P. M.,Sachsman D. B.A question of quality: How journalists and news sources evaluate coverage of environmental risk.Journal of Communication. 1990;40:117-131.
60. Scheufele D. A.,Nisbet M. C.,Brossard D.Pathways to political participation? Religion, communication contexts, and mass media.International Journal of Public Opinion Research. 2003;15:300-324.
61. Shwom R.,Dan A.,Dietz T.The effects of information and state of residence on climate change policy preferences.Climatic Change. 2008;90:343-358.
62. Smith E. R. A. N.Energy, the environment, and public opinion. New York, NY: Rowman & Littlefield; 2002:.
63. Steel B. S.,Warner R. L.,Lach D.Gender differences in support for scientific involvement in U.S. environmental policy.Science, Technology, & Human Values. 2010;35:147-173.
64. Stewart C. O.,Dickerson D. L.,Hotchkiss R.Beliefs about science and news frames in audience evaluations of embryonic and adult stem cell research.Science Communication. 2009;30:427-452.
65. Tickner J.,Raffensperger C.The politics of precaution in the United States and the European Union.Global Environmental Change. 2001;11:175-180.
66. Uslaner E. M.The moral foundations of trust. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press; 2002:.
67. Van Liere K. D.,Dunlap R. E.The social bases of environmental concern: A review of hypotheses, explanations, and empirical evidence.Public Opinion Quarterly. 1980;44:181-197.