"We were reminded that an essential ingredient of any social research is for the data to be based on lived experience." Alexandra Gibson & Alex Beattie grappling with AI responses in research: theconversation.com/something-felt… Via The Conversation - Australia + New Zealand Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington #ArtificialIntelligence

While the media focus more on 'dramatic' causes of death (🌪️⚡️🔥🗡️...), this doesn't appear to distort people's risk perceptions. Very interesting study! cc Alexandra Freeman David Spiegelhalter

Wonderful to see our review on the communication of statistics and evidence in times of crisis out. What does research tell us about the do’s and don’ts of evidence communication and underlying psychology? doi.org/10.1146/annure…

Narratives – stories – can be very persuasive. But they can also help people take in information. So can you use them if you want to inform but not persuade? We did an experiment to find out, now published: doi.org/10.1098/rsos.2… @scicomguy @crschneider3 Lisa-Maria Tanase

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A new study reveals just how digitally dependent most New Zealanders are now. Disconnecting requires conscious effort – and it could even cost you money. Read more from University of Otago theconversation.com/the-struggle-t…

Lots of emotions receiving news of our forthcoming paper being accepted Pᴜʙʟɪᴄ Uɴᴅᴇʀsᴛᴀɴᴅɪɴɢ ᴏғ Sᴄɪᴇɴᴄᴇ 𝑱𝒐𝒖𝒓𝒏𝒂𝒍 The Effect of Scientific Conspiracy Theories on Scepticism Towards Biotechnologies -- John Kerr Dr Art Stukas / @[email protected] & Jim McLennan Look forward to sharing it as soon as it is in press

🚨 New preprint alert! We investigated the trust gap between climate scientists and general scientists across 68 countries (N = 69,534) using the TISP dataset. Our study also explored the predictors behind this trust gap. #ClimateScience #TrustInScience osf.io/preprints/osf/…

had an interesting chat with Parker McKenzie from The New Daily yesterday about US election #conspiracytheories thenewdaily.com.au/news/world/us-…

🚨 New preprint 🚨 Are climate scientists less trusted than scientists in general? 🤔🌍 Yes, we find evidence of a significant trust gap between climate scientists and scientists in general. 👇🧵 osf.io/preprints/osf/…

NZ’s lack of #misinformation monitoring leaves the country vulnerable to harmful false narratives and inaccurate information. phcc.org.nz/briefing/natio…

Several key New Zealand orgs focussed on monitoring #misinformation closed this year. So I (and several more knowledgeable co-authors) wrote something about how we need to keep tabs on this sort of thing.

Does Lower Psychological Need Satisfaction Foster Conspiracy Belief? Longitudinal Effects Over 3 Years in New Zealand paper led by @EAlbath using longitudinal data to examine the causal relationship b/w conspiracy beliefs and psychological needs OA 🔗 journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/01…

Spotted a fantastic piece of science journalism in the past year? Nominate it for a golden tardigrade: sciencemediacentre.co.nz/2025/02/21/cel…

If you're looking for the best science reads in NZ, look no further. Some cracking reads.