Predictors of trust in the general science and climate science research of US federal agencies.

In this article, we focus on a key strategic objective of scientific organizations: maintaining the trust of the public. Using data from a nationally representative survey of American adults ( n = 1510), we assess the extent to which demographic factors and political ideology are associated with citizens' trust in general science and climate science research conducted by US federal agencies. Finally, we test whether priming individuals to first consider agencies' general science research influences trust in their climate science research, and vice versa. We found that federal agencies' general science research is more trusted than their climate science research-although a large minority of respondents did not have an opinion-and that political ideology has a strong influence on public trust in federal scientific research. We also found that priming participants to consider general scientific research does not increase trust in climate scientific research. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.

Under the weather: an evaluation of different modes of presenting meteorological information for pilots.

Understanding current and forecast weather conditions for a planned route of flight is vital for general aviation (GA) pilots. Weather information can be obtained from multiple sources and in multiple formats, ranging from abbreviated code provided by aviation weather forecasters to animated graphical displays available on TV and the Internet. The present study investigated the effectiveness of graphical displays of meteorological information. A commercially available graphical display was ergonomically redesigned and the original and redesigned displays were compared with an ordinary text statement. Recall of information was significantly affected by display type. Comparisons showed the ergonomically redesigned display to be superior to the ordinary text statement. Performance was affected by participants' general level of familiarity with evaluating data displays as measured by their area of study (sciences or humanities). The generalizability of the results to the pilot population is discussed.