We are currently pursuing a number of distinct, specific lines of research connected with the way in which the general public's epistemic orientation to science — many of them focused on the public perceptions of anthropogenic climate change as a central case study. Some of our work in progress may be found below.

Publications

• "The Development and Validation of the Social Enterprise of Science Index (SESI): An Instrument to Measure Grasp of the Social-Institutional Aspects of Science," Joanna Huxster, Matthew H. Slater, and Asheley Landrum (2021) SAGE Open 11:2 [ Journal Page (open access) ]
• "Reporting on Science as an Ongoing Process (or Not)," Matthew H. Slater, Emily R. Scholfield (Bucknell ’22), & J. Conor Moore (Bucknell ’20), forthcoming in Frontiers in Communication (2021) — part of the research topic special "issue" on Theoretical and Practical Issues in the Epistemology of Science Journalism.  [ Journal Page (open access) ]
• "Open Questions in Scientific Consensus Messaging Research," Asheley Landrum & Matthew H. Slater (2020) Environmental Communication [ Journal Page | preprint ]
• "Understanding and Trusting Science," Matthew H. Slater, Joanna Huxster, Julia E. Bresticker (Bucknell ’17) (2019) Journal for the General Philosophy of Science [Journal Page | PDF]
• "Denialism as Applied Skepticism," Matthew H. Slater, Joanna Huxster, Julia E. Bresticker (Bucknell ’17) Victor LoPiccolo (Bucknell ’18) (2018) Erkenntnis. [Journal Page | PDF]
• "Attempts to Prime Intellectual Virtues for Understanding of Science: Failures to Inspire Intellectual Effort," Joanna Huxster, Melissa Hopkins (Bucknell ’16), Julia E. Bresticker (Bucknell ’17), Matthew H. Slater, & Jason Leddington, (2017) Philosophical Psychology  [ Journal Page | Penultimate Draft ]
• "Understanding ‘Understanding’ in Public Understanding of Science,” Joanna Huxster, Matthew H. Slater, Jason Leddington, and six Bucknell Undergraduates (2017) Public Understanding of Science. [ Journal Page | Penultimate Draft ]
  • NPR Coverage

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Papers In Progress & Under Review

• "Testing the efficacy of consensus messaging and infographics for communicating about public health: The case of mask wearing for COVID-19" Asheley Landrum, Joanna Huxster, Matthew H. Slater.​
• "Public Conceptions of Scientific Consensus," Matthew H. Slater, Joanna Huxster, Emily Scholfield (Bucknell ’22). [PDF]
• "Trust of Science as a Public Collective Good" Matthew H. Slater & Emily Scholfield.
• "Trusting the Scientific Community: The Development and Validation of an Instrument to Measure Trust in Science," Matthew H. Slater & Joanna Huxster [PDF]
• "Resilient Understanding: The Value of Seeing for Oneself,” Matthew H. Slater & Jason Leddington [PDF]
• ​"Epistemic Weismannism: Producing versus Transferring Understanding," Matthew H. Slater