Distinguishing facts from beliefs: fuzzy categories

Rabinowitz, Mitchell; Acevedo, María Eugenia Serrano; Casen, Sara; Rosengarten, Myriah; Kowalczyk, Martha; Portnoy, Lindsay

doi:10.2478/plc-2013-0016

Cited by 5 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 14 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…To familiarize themselves with the fact/belief categorization task, participants were presented with 20 general statements used in prior research [ 32 ], including 10 statements that were generally accepted as facts (e.g., “The earth revolves around the sun”) and 10 that were beliefs (e.g., “Sleeping with the windows open is good for you”). For each statement, participants were asked the following questions: (1) “How strongly do you agree with this statement?” (4-point Likert scale: 1 = “strongly disagree,” 4 = “strongly agree”); (2) “What percentage of the general adult population would agree with this statement?” (5-point scale: 0%, 25%, 50%, 75%, or 100%); and (3) “Is this statement a fact or belief?” (dichotomous response).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In these discussions, it is generally assumed that a fact is a concept from classical logic that has a set of defining features. At the same time, in practice people tend to treat facts and beliefs as “fuzzy concepts,” insofar as the features they use to distinguish facts from beliefs vary from one domain to another [ 32 ]. People tend to categorize information as factual when they believe that nearly everyone else agrees with it; cf.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Beliefs about Childhood Vaccination in the United States: Political Ideology, False Consensus, and the Illusion of Uniqueness

et al. 2016

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Several contagious diseases were nearly eradicated through childhood vaccination, but some parents have decided in recent years not to fully vaccinate their children, raising new public health concerns. The question of whether and how beliefs about vaccination are linked to political ideology has been hotly debated. This study investigates the effects of ideology on perceptions of harms and benefits related to vaccination as well as judgments of others’ attitudes. A total of 367 U.S. adults (131 men, 236 women; Mage = 34.92 years, range = 18–72) completed an online survey through Mechanical Turk. Results revealed that liberals were significantly more likely to endorse pro-vaccination statements and to regard them as “facts” (rather than “beliefs”), in comparison with moderates and conservatives. Whereas conservatives overestimated the proportion of like-minded others who agreed with them, liberals underestimated the proportion of others who agreed with them. That is, conservatives exhibited the “truly false consensus effect,” whereas liberals exhibited an “illusion of uniqueness” with respect to beliefs about vaccination. Conservative and moderate parents in this sample were less likely than liberals to report having fully vaccinated their children prior to the age of two. A clear limitation of this study is that the sample is not representative of the U.S. population. Nevertheless, a recognition of ideological sources of potential variability in health-related beliefs and perceptions is a prerequisite for the design of effective forms of public communication.

show abstract

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Beliefs about Childhood Vaccination in the United States: Political Ideology, False Consensus, and the Illusion of Uniqueness

et al. 2016

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…To familiarize participants with the fact/belief categorization task and to also collect data as a comparison check for the vaccination content, a list of 20 statements about general world knowledge was presented. These statements were used in prior research [ 8 , 37 ], and consisted of 10 statements that were generally accepted as facts (e.g., “A hammer is a tool used to pound nails”), and 10 statements that were generally accepted as beliefs (e.g., “sleeping with the windows open is good for you”). See Appendix A for a list of the 20 general statements.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Beliefs about Vaccinations: Comparing a Sample from a Medical School to That from the General Population

Latella

McAuley

Rabinowitz

2018

IJERPH

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The current study compares health care professionals’ beliefs about vaccination statements with the beliefs of a sample of individuals from the general population. Students and faculty within a medical school (n = 58) and a sample from the general population in the United States (n = 177) were surveyed regarding their beliefs about vaccinations. Participants evaluated statements about vaccinations (both supporting and opposing), and indicated whether they thought the general population would agree with them. Overall, it was found that subjects in both populations agreed with statements supporting vaccination over opposing statements, but the general population was more likely to categorize the supporting statements as beliefs rather than facts. Additionally, there was little consensus within each population as to which statements were considered facts versus beliefs. Both groups underestimated the number of people that would agree with them; however, the medical affiliates showed the effect significantly more. Implications for medical education and health communication are discussed.

show abstract

“…The ability to identify question types that lead to greater comprehension and sustained recall has the potential to improve pedagogical practices and instructional design. Moreover, understanding how the student approaches learning may also uncover learner perceptions of knowledge by domain as more or less factual (Rabinowitz et al , 2013).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Does context shape comprehension: evaluating the influence of presentation on inquiry strategies in science learning

Portnoy

Lemberger

2021

ILS

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Purpose Approaches to learning have the ability to influence knowledge acquisition, comprehension, retention and even motivation to learn. Previous work indicates that despite age, experience, or prior knowledge, students have a tendency to approach learning differently as a function of the presented content. The purpose of this study is to explore how context influences student approaches to learning science. Design/methodology/approach The authors adopt a question-asking methodology to evaluate if approaches to learning the same science content vary when presented within the context of Pure Science or the History of Science. Findings Results indicate that contextualizing the presentation of science content, shifts the approaches students take in attempting to learn science content as evidenced by the questions they ask to deepen their understanding. Additional variables of prior experience with each scientific concept, task persistence at a distractor task and later recall of the presented concepts were related to different inquiry strategies. Research limitations/implications Implications for instructional design and pedagogy are discussed. Practical implications The framework in which scientific information is presented may impact how students modify existing and create a new schema, impacting their beliefs about scientific knowledge and the way in which students question, hypothesize and engage within the domain of science. Social implications By studying the role of inquiry while students engage in science learning, the authors explore the role of context, content and knowledge retention. Originality/value The current study probes at the nature of student questioning and its reliance on the content, context and its relationship to outcome variables such as learning and, perhaps, even persistence as it relates to students’ prior knowledge within content areas which may, in turn, lead to varying levels of student self-efficacy.

show abstract

Distinguishing facts from beliefs: fuzzy categories

Cited by 5 publications

References 14 publications

Beliefs about Childhood Vaccination in the United States: Political Ideology, False Consensus, and the Illusion of Uniqueness

Beliefs about Childhood Vaccination in the United States: Political Ideology, False Consensus, and the Illusion of Uniqueness

Beliefs about Vaccinations: Comparing a Sample from a Medical School to That from the General Population

Does context shape comprehension: evaluating the influence of presentation on inquiry strategies in science learning

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About