Tag: Climate Change Disinformation

Abstract

Introduction

In recent years, numerous stories of detransition have emerged in the media and public discourse. Often regret-centered, these narratives tend to present detransition as a mistake that should be prevented by restricting access to gender transition, resulting in an increasingly antitrans sociopolitical climate. This article examines the perception that detrans youth have of these discourses and social representations on detransition and the impact they have on their detransition experience.

Methods

Twenty-five semidirected interviews were conducted internationally from 2020 to 2022 with youth aged 16-to-25 years who have interrupted a transition (social and/or medical). Reflexive thematic analysis was conducted.

Results

Participants note they feel misrepresented and that detransition is limited in terms of representation and minimized as an experience. They also mention that detransition is often framed as a mistake, a negative outcome or the result of external pressures (to transition or detransition). These representations, coming from both gender-affirming and gender-critical groups, impact detrans youth who feel unheard, weaponized, left to navigate ambivalence alone and alienated from trans/queer communities.

Conclusion and Policy Implications

The article discusses how current discourses on detransition constitute epistemic injustices (Fricker, 2007) that may affect detrans youth’s capacity to make sense of their experience and thus their resilience and overall experience of detransition. It calls for caution in the way detrans experiences are presented and discussed, especially in current debates on trans and detrans rights. It also calls for a more nuanced understanding of detrans experiences and for LGBTQ + communities to be more accepting of detrans narratives.

Abstract

Blockchain technology has shown immense potential for enhancing the transparency, security, and fairness of social credit systems, addressing many of the limitations faced by traditional centralized models. This paper presents a comprehensive framework for integrating blockchain into social credit management platforms, leveraging its decentralized, tamper-proof, and transparent features. By implementing smart contracts to automate social credit scoring rules, the proposed platform eliminates human biases, reduces administrative overhead, and enhances system integrity. The study also explores privacy-preserving techniques, such as zero-knowledge proofs and homomorphic encryption, to balance transparency with user privacy. Through case studies, including an analysis of China’s Social Credit System, we demonstrate the practical applicability of blockchain in improving trust and data security within social governance frameworks. Key challenges, such as scalability and regulatory concerns, are also addressed. The findings provide actionable insights for both researchers and practitioners, offering a blueprint for developing trustworthy, secure, and equitable social credit systems. Future research directions focus on scalability solutions, regulatory frameworks, and user acceptance of blockchain-based governance models.

Abstract

In the present study, we investigated the relationship between cognitive style (analytical vs. intuitive), illusory pattern perception, and belief in conspiracy theories within the context of the Covid-19 pandemic. To supplement extant research that has primarily focused on the impact of analytical thinking on beliefs in conspiracy theories, we employed a unique approach by manipulating intuitive thinking. Participants were instructed to respond to both general and Covid-19 conspiracy questions under conditions of time pressure (to induce intuitive thinking), time delay (to induce analytical thinking), or no time constraints. The findings indicate that individuals who were prompted to provide intuitive responses within a limited timeframe are more inclined to believe in Covid-19 conspiracy theories, whereas this effect was not observed for general conspiracy beliefs. Additionally, the tendency to perceive illusory patterns moderated the relationship between thinking styles and conspiracy beliefs. Higher illusory pattern perception led to higher beliefs in conspiracies among participants under time pressure.

Abstract

Science is integral to society because it can inform individual, government, corporate, and civil society decision-making on issues such as public health, new technologies or climate change. Yet, public distrust and populist sentiment challenge the relationship between science and society. To help researchers analyse the science-society nexus across different geographical and cultural contexts, we undertook a cross-sectional population survey resulting in a dataset of 71,922 participants in 68 countries. The data were collected between November 2022 and August 2023 as part of the global Many Labs study “Trust in Science and Science-Related Populism” (TISP). The questionnaire contained comprehensive measures for individuals’ trust in scientists, science-related populist attitudes, perceptions of the role of science in society, science media use and communication behaviour, attitudes to climate change and support for environmental policies, personality traits, political and religious views and demographic characteristics. Here, we describe the dataset, survey materials and psychometric properties of key variables. We encourage researchers to use this unique dataset for global comparative analyses on public perceptions of science and its role in society and policy-making.

Abstract

A primary goal of science education and communication is to promote a functional scientific literacy that enables people to efficaciously engage with socioscientific issues (SSI), such as COVID-19 and climate change. Understanding the nature of science (NOS) is a crucial component of a functional scientific literacy that facilitates critical evaluation of scientific information, mis/disinformation resistance, and responsible socioscientific decision-making. Scientists are uniquely positioned yet often unprepared and underutilized to educate the public about the nature of their work despite how the public would greatly benefit from scientists’ communicating the nature and validity of their research. This mixed-methods investigation features analysis of surveys and interview data collected from 14 scientists to understand their perceptions and values toward communicating NOS. Results from a semi-grounded thematic analysis of the interviews demonstrate that scientists’ NOS communication views are complex and are influenced by a number of factors, including their perceptions of the public, financial and institutional constraints, and the role of science in solving societal issues. Prominent findings from this study demonstrate that the scientists highly value communicating the societal benefits of science to the public. However, the scientists afforded much less priority to addressing other NOS ideas, such as the importance and nature of basic science, peer review, and consensus building. Additionally, the scientists investigated in this study demonstrated reluctance to communicate about the subjectivity of their work, citing a fear that doing so would negatively impact public trust in science. We discuss these findings in the context of scientists’ NOS views and perceptions of NOS communication which we gathered through surveys and interviews. This investigation provides a much-needed step toward better understanding how science educators and science communication specialists can support scientists’ efforts to convey important features of their work effectively.

Abstract

The re-emergence of conflicts in developing countries is the subject of a complex and hardly consensual literature. The final aim of this article is to assess the direct and indirect effects of conflicts on global competitiveness observed. Thus, starting from the different dimensions of security fragility (internal conflicts, external conflicts), we specify and estimate a dynamic panel data model of a sample of 66 developing countries by the system generalized method of moments (S-GMM) over the period 2001–2019. Two main results emerge. Firstly, both internal and external conflicts contribute significantly to improving global competitiveness in DC’s. Secondly, the results of the mediation analysis show that the effect of conflicts on global competitiveness is mediated by the Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) diffusion channel, in particular mobile phone, Internet, fixed telephone and broadband in DC’s. The originality of this article is based on taking into account the global indicator of conflicts, particularly in terms of internal conflicts (civil wars, civil disorder, terrorism), external conflicts (cross-border conflicts, foreign pressures, wars) and analysis of mediation to determine the level of involvement of each transmission channel in this process of strengthening competitiveness. However, we suggest in addition to the quantitative and qualitative amelioration of technological infrastructures, the consolidating strategies for mitigating inter- and intra-country conflicts, favourable to improve global competitiveness and economic resilience in DC.

Abstract

Research in cultural anthropology and the interdisciplinary field of science and technology studies (STS) has demonstrated that environmental disasters are not only techno-scientifically and socio-politically complex but also epistemically complex -- involving perspectival diversity; multiple, often conflicting forms of evidence; data gaps and disinformation; and role transitions and confusions. Disasters, this research has demonstrated, are highly fraught knowledge problems that nevertheless call for pragmatic response. In this article, we describe an approach to disaster education that stems from this premise, mobilizing an Environmental Injustice Case Study Framework that draws out multiple dimensions of disaster, foregrounding the need for interdisciplinarity while immersing students in the challenges and paradoxes of disaster knowledge production. We offer both an instructional approach and a theoretical perspective on what case study pedagogy in disaster education accomplishes, and can contribute to science education writ large. Our argument is that critical approaches to case study pedagogy can scaffold many kinds of learning in both disaster and science education, helping students integrate diverse kinds of data, analysis, interpretation, and judgment, while building metacognition and epistemic reflexivity.

Abstract

This study investigates the relationship between organizational rumors and employee turnover intentions, with a specific focus on employees exhibiting individual entrepreneurial orientation (IEO). Employees with IEO are crucial for capturing innovation opportunities and enhancing organizational value creation, as they help mitigate market risks and strengthen competitiveness. Understanding the turnover intentions of IEO employees holds significant importance. Drawing on social contagion theory, this research explores how the dissemination of rumors within organizations influences employee attitudes and behaviors related to turnover. Using Fuzzy-Set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA), we analyzed data from 528 employees in China and 405 employees in the United States to explore the configurations between organizational rumors and four distinct types of turnover intentions: self-focused, development-focused, trade-off balanced, and emotional exhaustion-based. This study addresses a critical gap in the literature by examining how organizational rumors specifically affect turnover intentions among IEO employees, offering new insights into how informal communication shapes employee behavior and decision-making in collectivism and individualism cultural contexts.

Abstract

Generative Artificial Intelligence (genAI) holds immense potential in revolutionizing journalism and media production processes. By harnessing genAI, journalists can streamline various tasks, including content creation, curation, and dissemination. Through genAI, journalists already automate the generation of diverse news articles, ranging from sports updates and financial reports to weather forecasts. However, this raises ethical questions of high relevance for media organizations and societies especially when genAI is used for more sensitive topics and at larger scale. To not jeopardize trustworthiness in journalistic organizations, it is important that the use of genAI in journalism is guided by moral principles. We therefore conducted 18 interviews with researchers and practitioners with expertise in AI-based technologies, journalism, and ethics from a German perspective in order to identify guidelines for the ethical use of genAI in media organizations. We derived requirements for the ethical introduction of genAI and actionable guidelines which explain how decision makers in media organizations should address ethical principles for the use of AI in the news production life cycle, in order to contribute to trustworthiness of journalistic organizations and products.

Abstract

Large language models (LLMs) have the potential to enhance the verification of health claims. However, issues with hallucination and comprehension of logical statements require these models to be closely scrutinized in healthcare applications. We introduce CliniFact, a scientific claim dataset created from hypothesis testing results in clinical research, covering 992 unique interventions for 22 disease categories. The dataset used study arms and interventions, primary outcome measures, and results from clinical trials to derive and label clinical research claims. These claims were then linked to supporting information describing clinical trial results in scientific publications. CliniFact contains 1,970 instances from 992 unique clinical trials related to 1,540 unique publications. When evaluating LLMs against CliniFact, discriminative models, such as BioBERT with an accuracy of 80.2%, outperformed generative counterparts, such as Llama3-70B, which reached 53.6% accuracy (p-value < 0.001). Our results demonstrate the potential of CliniFact as a benchmark for evaluating LLM performance in clinical research claim verification.