How Laypeople Understand the Tentativeness of Medical Research News in the Media: An Experimental Study on the Perception of Information About Deep Brain Stimulation. (April 2015)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Kimmerle, Joachim; Flemming, Danny; Feinkohl, Insa; Cress, Ulrike
• Is Part Of: Science communication. Volume 37:Number 2(2015:Apr.)
• Page Start: 173
• Page End: 189
• Publication Date: 2015-04
• Subjects: medical research -- scientific uncertainty -- tentativeness -- health communication -- health news; Social sciences -- Periodicals; Knowledge, Sociology of -- Periodicals; Communication in science -- Periodicals; Communication of technical information -- Periodicals; Communication in medicine -- Periodicals; Information scientifique -- Périodiques; Information technique -- Périodiques; Communication en sciences sociales -- Périodiques; Communication en médecine -- Périodiques; 300.14
• DOI: 10.1177/1075547014556541
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1075-5470

Abstract

Medical research findings are often tentative, and people should be able to perceive this. However, the psychological processes underlying this ability are largely unclear. In a laboratory experiment, we found that the following factors had an impact on perception of tentativeness of research findings reported in a newspaper article: (a) the framing of findings, (b) emphasis on the limited reliability of the findings in the article, (c) people's provisional opinion on the topic, and (d) their medicine-related epistemological beliefs. We make recommendations to science journalists to help promote the public understanding of health research and provide suggestions for future studies.