The Role of Scientific Source Credibility and Goodwill in Public Skepticism Toward GM Foods

The complex web of political-economic relations that constitutes biotechnology coupled with a contentious history of public resistance, illustrates the power of perceptions of credibility in mediating individuals’ judgements about GMOs. To more accurately measure what contributes to public skepticism of GM foods, the present research applies a multidimensional model of source credibility comprised of scientific understanding, integrity, agreement, concern, trust, and goodwill (bias). Testing the Anti-Reflexivity Thesis in a new context, we also explore the role of attitudes about science and economic innovation by analyzing associations between political ideology and beliefs about the potential impacts of GM foods. Using data from the Pew Research Center’s American Trends Panel, we find evidence of politically polarized perceptions of GM scientists’ credibility and public beliefs about the environmental risks and benefits of GM foods. Results suggest that political ideology is indirectly associated with beliefs about GM impacts on the food supply, largely through perceptions of goodwill, the so-called “lost” dimension of source credibility. Because demand for biotechnology products like gene edited foods is expected to increase, consumer beliefs about GMOs will likely have significant implications for the future of the bioeconomy

Ethical and legal issues in mitochondrial transfer

The US National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine recently provided conditional endorsement for mitochondrial transfer. While its approach is more conservative in some respects than that of the United Kingdom (which passed its own regulations in 2015 ), it marks a significant policy development for a potentially large implementer of this emerging intervention. In this perspective, we consider some of the ethical and legal aspects of these policy responses

Reconceptualizing Context: A Multilevel Model of the Context of Reception and Second-Generation Educational Attainment

This paper seeks to return scholarly attention to a core intellectual divide between segmented and conventional (or neo-)assimilation approaches, doing so through a theoretical and empirical reconsideration of contextual effects on second-generation outcomes. We evaluate multiple approaches to measuring receiving country contextual effects and measuring their impact on the educational attainment of the children of immigrants. We demonstrate that our proposed measures better predict second-generation educational attainment than prevailing approaches, enabling a multilevel modeling strategy that accounts for the structure of immigrant families nested within different receiving contexts

Poetry as a Creative Practice to Enhance Engagement and Learning in Conservation Science

Creativity is crucial to the capacity to do science well, to communicate it in compelling ways, and to enhance learning. Creativity can be both practiced and enhanced to strengthen conservation science professionals’ efforts to address global environmental challenges. We explore how poetry is one creative approach that can further conservation scientists’ engagement and learning. We draw on evidence from peer-reviewed literature to illustrate benefits of integrating science and poetry, and to ground our argument for the growth of a science-poetry community to help conservation scientists develop skills in creative practices as a component of professional development. We present examples from literature as well as two short poetry exercises for scientists to draw on when considering writing poetry, or deciding on forms of poetry to include, in their practice. Opportunity exists to grow science–poetry projects to further our understanding of what such initiatives can offer