TY  - INPR
N1  - © The Author(s) 2022. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/).
KW  - COVID-19
KW  -  health communication
KW  -  heuristics
KW  -  pandemic
KW  -  public health
KW  -  public understanding of science
KW  -  uncertainty
JF  - Public Understanding of Science
PB  - SAGE Publications
A1  - Hodson, Jaigris
A1  - Reid, Darren
A1  - Veletsianos, George
A1  - Houlden, Shandell
A1  - Thompson, Christiani
TI  - Heuristic responses to pandemic uncertainty: Practicable communication strategies of ?reasoned transparency? to aid public reception of changing science
Y1  - 2022/12/01/
AV  - public
N2  - Scientific uncertainty during pandemic outbreaks poses a challenge for health communicators. Debates continue over the extent to which health officials should be transparent about uncertainty and the extent to which they should suppress uncertainty and risk losing the public?s trust when information changes. The middle ground, the concept of ?reasoned transparency,? proposes that communicators focus on interpreting uncertainty to the public in ways informed by risk research. However, little guidance exists for health officials on how to do so in this context. After conducting a series of one-to-one interviews about people?s coronavirus disease 2019 information habits, we identified significant trends in the heuristics that people depended on to process uncertainty. Based on those trends, we propose health communicators use narratives of science as evolving to set expectations for change, and that when changes do occur, health communicators note divergences from the past and avoid simply replacing old information with new information.
UR  - https://doi.org/10.1177/09636625221135425
ID  - discovery10161294
ER  -