Sexting and its potential links to sexual behavior, including risky sexual practices

Reclaimed water programs treat wastewater to remove hazardous compounds, pathogens, and organic matter and provide reclaimed water for non-potable applications. Reusing water may significantly reduce demands on freshwater resources and provide sustainable water management strategies. Though production of reclaimed water is highly regulated, public acceptability has historically hindered the implementation of successful reclaimed water systems. The public generally opposes the use of reclaimed water due to the "yuck factor", which is the instinctive disgust associated with the idea of recycling sewage and the fear that exposure to reclaimed water is unsafe. This paper reports the results of an extensive survey that was conducted to evaluate the potential acceptability of reclaimed water use. A total of 2,800 respondents across the U.S. participated in the survey. Results demonstrate that a small percentage of the population is concerned about water shortages, the majority of the population practices some level of water conservation, and a substantial percentage of the population supports the use of reclaimed water. Climate, demographic variables, and financial incentives were tested for influence on attitudes and behaviors regarding water, including awareness, conservation, and support for water reuse. Sex, age, last monthly water bill, and location (as EPA region) showed no significant effect on the acceptance of water reuse, while ethnicity, education level, metro/non metro, and income showed significant effects. Drought conditions do not have a statistically significant effect on the number of reclaimed water supporters, but increase the number of respondents who are water concerned, the number of respondents who are the most active water conservers, and the number of respondents who limit their use of water for lawn and garden watering. Financial incentives influence the willingness of respondents to participate in water reuse programs, and a decrease in the monthly water bills increased the 3 likelihood that respondents would participate in a reclaimed water program. Support for the use of reclaimed water for various applications ranked positively, on average, except for the application of water reuse for food crop irrigation and use of reclaimed water at respondents' own residences. Results and conclusions of the survey can provide insight for implementing successful reclaimed water programs.

Much risk communication research has demonstrated how mass media can influence individual risk perceptions, but lacks a comprehensive conceptual understanding of another key channel of communication: interpersonal discussion. Using the social amplification of risk as a theoretical framework, we consider the potential for discussions to function as amplification stations. We explore this possibility using data from a public opinion survey of residents living in potential locations for a new biological research facility in the United States. Controlling for a variety of key information variables, our results show that two dimensions of discussion-frequency and valence-have impacts on residents' perceptions of the facility's benefits and its risks. We also explore the possibility that an individual's overall attitude moderates the effect of discussion on their perceptions of risks and benefits. Our results demonstrate the potential for discussions to operate as amplifiers or attenuators of perceptions of both risks and benefits.

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Research indicates that uncertainty in science news stories affects public assessment of risk and uncertainty. However, the form in which uncertainty is presented may also affect people's risk and uncertainty assessments. For example, a news story that features an expert discussing both what is known and what is unknown about a topic may convey a different form of scientific uncertainty than a story that features two experts who hold conflicting opinions about the status of scientific knowledge of the topic, even when both stories contain the same information about knowledge and its boundaries. This study focuses on audience uncertainty and risk perceptions regarding the emerging science of nanotechnology by manipulating whether uncertainty in a news story about potential risks is attributed to expert sources in the form of caveats (individual uncertainty) or conflicting viewpoints (collective uncertainty). Results suggest that the type of uncertainty portrayed does not impact audience feelings of uncertainty or risk perceptions directly. Rather, the presentation of the story influences risk perceptions only among those who are highly deferent to scientific authority. Implications for risk communication theory and practice are discussed.

Despite large-scale investments and government mandates to expand biofuels development and infrastructure in the United States, little is known about how the public conceives of this alternative fuel technology. This study examines public opinion of biofuels by focusing on citizen knowledge and the motivated processing of media information. Specifically, we explore the direct effects of biofuels knowledge and the moderating effect of partisanship on the relationship between media use and benefit vs. risk perceptions in the following four domains: environmental impacts, economic consequences, ethical/social implications, and political ramifications. Our results suggest that more knowledgeable respondents see fewer benefits of biofuels relative to risks, and that Democrats and Republicans are affected differently by media use when forming opinions about biofuels. Among Democrats, greater attention to political media content leads to a more favorable outlook toward the technology across several domains of interest, while among Republicans, an increase in attention to political content has the opposite effect. Possible reasons for these results, as well as implications of the findings at the intersection of politics and the life sciences, are discussed.

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