PHILADELPHIA, November 1, 2021 – Throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, conspiracy theorists have exploited the conditional nature of science and questioned the trustworthiness and motives of federal agencies and officials to depict scientists and health authorities as malign actors. In a commentary published today in the journal Nature Human Behaviour, science communication scholar Kathleen Hall Jamieson analyzes the […]
Annenberg Public Policy Center
Posted inSci/Tech
Misplaced trust: When trust in science fosters pseudoscience
The Covid-19 pandemic and the politicization of health-prevention measures such as vaccination and mask-wearing have highlighted the need for people to accept and trust science. But trusting science isn’t enough. A new study finds that people who trust science are more likely to believe and disseminate false claims containing scientific references than people who do […]
Posted inLife
COVID-19 conspiracy beliefs increased among users of conservative and social media
May 3, 2021 – Belief in conspiracies about the COVID-19 pandemic increased through the early months of the U.S. outbreak among people who reported being heavy users of conservative and social media, a study by Annenberg Public Policy Center researchers has found. Prior APPC research found that people who regularly used conservative or social media during the […]
Posted inLife
How to Counter Misinformation about COVID, Vaccines and Masks
PHILADELPHIA, March 16, 2021 – Whose job is it to fight misinformation about COVID-19 and vaccines? Is it the responsibility of public health agencies, digital platforms such as Facebook and Twitter, fact-checking organizations? In “How to Debunk Misinformation about COVID, Vaccines and Masks,” in the April issue of Scientific American (online today), communication scholar Kathleen Hall […]
Posted inLife
For Learning at School or Home, iCivics,and APPC Offer No-Cost, Online Civics Games
PHILADELPHIA, Pa. August 12, 2020 – With the election less than 100 days away, iCivics and the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania have re-released three free, nonpartisan civics games designed to help educators, parents, and families teach middle and high school students how our three branches of government interact, how the judicial […]
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Countering anti-vaccination influences from social media – with conversation
August 10, 2020 – The flu vaccine is considered one of the great achievements in public health, and each year it prevents millions of people from getting sick and thousands of deaths. Even so, social media messages abound with skepticism and falsehoods about vaccination. What effect, if any, do these social media messages have on […]
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Conservative and social media usage associated with misinformation about COVID-19
April 27, 2020 – People who relied on conservative media or social media in the early days of the COVID-19 outbreak were more likely to be misinformed about how to prevent the virus and believe conspiracy theories about it, a study of media use and public knowledge has found. Based on an Annenberg Science Knowledge […]
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A Woman’s Right to Vote: New film traces struggle behind 19th Amendment
Aug. 19, 2019 – With the 19th Amendment’s centennial just a year away, Annenberg Classroom has released “The 19th Amendment: A Woman’s Right to Vote,” a video about women’s struggle to secure the right to vote and the amendment’s long journey to passage. Featuring Supreme Court Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Anthony Kennedy and other […]
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Survey: Only 32 percent of Americans able to correctly name all 3 branches of government
September 17, 2018 – The annual Annenberg Constitution Day Civics Survey, conducted in August among more than a thousand U.S. adults, found that Americans are familiar with constitutional provisions involving impeachment and pardons, issues that are in the news. But they know less about fundamentals like the three branches of government. This year 32 percent […]
Posted inLife
iCivics and Annenberg Public Policy Center Partner to Create Game That Will Teach Media Literacy
PHILADELPHIA, Pa. May 16, 2018 – iCivics, the education nonprofit founded by Sandra Day O’Connor, and the Annenberg Public Policy Center, home of FactCheck.org and Annenberg Classroom, announced today that they are partnering to create an educational game that teaches news literacy and the precepts of journalistic standards. The game, to be released during the […]