eprintid: 10161294 rev_number: 6 eprint_status: archive userid: 699 dir: disk0/10/16/12/94 datestamp: 2022-12-06 12:56:30 lastmod: 2022-12-06 12:56:30 status_changed: 2022-12-06 12:56:30 type: article metadata_visibility: show sword_depositor: 699 creators_name: Hodson, Jaigris creators_name: Reid, Darren creators_name: Veletsianos, George creators_name: Houlden, Shandell creators_name: Thompson, Christiani title: Heuristic responses to pandemic uncertainty: Practicable communication strategies of “reasoned transparency” to aid public reception of changing science ispublished: inpress divisions: UCL divisions: B03 divisions: C03 divisions: F28 keywords: COVID-19, health communication, heuristics, pandemic, public health, public understanding of science, uncertainty note: © 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/). abstract: 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. date: 2022-12-01 date_type: published publisher: SAGE Publications official_url: https://doi.org/10.1177/09636625221135425 oa_status: green full_text_type: pub language: eng primo: open primo_central: open_green verified: verified_manual elements_id: 1993498 doi: 10.1177/09636625221135425 lyricists_name: Reid, Darren lyricists_id: DSREI52 actors_name: Reid, Darren actors_id: DSREI52 actors_role: owner full_text_status: public publication: Public Understanding of Science citation: Hodson, Jaigris; Reid, Darren; Veletsianos, George; Houlden, Shandell; Thompson, Christiani; (2022) Heuristic responses to pandemic uncertainty: Practicable communication strategies of “reasoned transparency” to aid public reception of changing science. Public Understanding of Science 10.1177/09636625221135425 <https://doi.org/10.1177/09636625221135425>. (In press). Green open access document_url: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10161294/1/09636625221135425.pdf