Entries by Kathryn Thier

CHRC Director and Staff Offer Health Misinformation Definition, Psychological Susceptibility Model, and Framework to Counter It

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Despite growing concerns and rapidly expanding research about health misinformation, answers to some fundamental questions remain unclear. Among the open questions are the definition of health misinformation (what is health misinformation?), the psychological drivers of susceptibility to health misinformation (why do people believe it?) and effective interventions for reducing the impact of health misinformation (how […]

CHRC Hosts 2023 Research Group Mini-Conference

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The CHRC hosted its 3rd mini-conference, the first in-person mini-conference since 2019 and the first in our new center space in the Marie Mount Building. Over the past year, the five research teams conduct diverse projects unified by the topic of the year. This year’s topic was COVID-19. Media & Society. Five student-faculty research teams presented […]

CHRC Students and Faculty Publish Study on Americans Support for Mandatory COVID-19 Vaccination

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This study sets out to understand the role of cultural worldviews, risk perceptions, and trust in scientists in impacting U.S. participants’ support for COVID-19 mandatory vaccination. Results from an online survey (“N” = 594) suggest that stronger individualistic and hierarchical worldviews are associated with more perceived COVID-19 vaccination risks, less perceived COVID-19 vaccination benefits, and […]

New CHRC Research About Predictors of COVID-19 Vaccine Misinformation Beliefs Among Unvaccinated Black Americans

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Health-related misinformation is a major threat to public health and particularly worrisome for populations experiencing health disparities. This study sets out to examine the prevalence, socio-psychological predictors, and consequences of beliefs in COVID-19 vaccine misinformation among unvaccinated Black Americans. We conducted an online national survey with Black Americans who had not been vaccinated against COVID-19 […]

CHRC Researchers Publish Meta-Analysis on Persuasive Effects of Temporal Framing in Health Messaging

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This meta-analysis investigated the persuasive effects of temporal framing in health messaging. Our analysis included 39 message pairs from 22 studies in 20 articles (N = 4,998) that examined the effects of temporal framing (i.e. present-oriented messages vs. future-oriented messages) on attitudes, inten-tions, and behaviors in health contexts. We found that present-oriented messages were significantly […]

CHRC Director and Staff Co-Author Study with Faculty Across UMD on COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy Among Black Americans

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In this study we examine the role of moral values in predicting COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy among Black Americans. Guided by moral foundations theory, we assess the associations between six moral foundations (care, fairness, loyalty, authority, purity, liberty) and attitudes and intentions toward COVID-19 vaccination. Results of a national survey of Black Americans (N = 1,497) […]

New Student Research on How News Affects Support for Climate Adaptation

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News media are the public’s primary source about risks such as climate change, but traditional journalistic approaches to climate change have failed to build support for collective social responses. Solutions journalism, an emerging practice focused on credible stories about responses to societal problems, may offer an alternate approach. From an online experiment with a convenience […]

CHRC Director and Assistants Publish Systematic Review of Individual Differences in Susceptibility to Health Misinformation

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Health misinformation poses a significant threat to public health. Understanding why people believe health misinformation and who is at risk is crucial for developing effective interventions to reduce the harmful impact of misinformation. We conducted a systematic review of published empirical research that examined individual differences in susceptibility to health misinformation, focusing on the psychological, […]

Watch Fall Virtual Seminar Series on Our YouTube Channel

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The CHRC welcomed Dr. Angela Cooke-Jackson and Dr. Brian Southwell as its Fall 2022 Virtual Seminar Series speakers. Click here to see Dr. Cooke-Jackson’s talk, “Risk Communication: Engaging Community-Based Participatory Design Models to Increase Awareness and Partnerships within Underrepresented Black and Brown Communities,” which was on October 14. Dr. Southwell’s talk “Misinformation as a Societal Concern ” wasNovember […]

CHRC Assistants, Director, and Affiliate Faculty Publish Research on Black Americans’ COVID-19 Vaccine Acceptance

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Guided by the 5C (confidence, complacency, constraints, calculation, and collective responsibility) model of vaccination behavior, we examine the psychological antecedents of COVID-19 vaccine acceptance (i.e. attitudes and intentions toward COVID-19 vaccination) among Black Americans, a group disproportionately affected by the coronavirus pandemic. We conducted a national survey of Black Americans (N = 1,497) in February/March 2021. We found […]