TY - JOUR
T1 - Attempts to prime intellectual virtues for understanding of science
T2 - Failures to inspire intellectual effort
AU - Huxster, Joanna
AU - Hopkins, Melissa
AU - Bresticker, Julia
AU - Leddington, Jason
AU - Slater, Matthew
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2017 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
PY - 2017/11/17
Y1 - 2017/11/17
N2 - Strategies for effectively communicating scientific findings to the public are an important and growing area of study. Recognizing that some complex subjects require recipients of information to take a more active role in constructing an understanding, we sought to determine whether it was possible to increase subjects’ intellectual effort via “priming” methodologies. In particular, we asked whether subconsciously priming “intellectual virtues” (IVs), such as curiosity, perseverance, patience, and diligence might improve participants’ effort and performance on various cognitive tasks. In the first experiment, we found no significant differences in either effort or understanding between IV-primed and neutrally-primed individuals across two different priming techniques. The second experiment measured the effect of IV-priming on intellectual effort in simpler, shorter-duration puzzles and exploration activities; here, we observed an effect, but given its low strength and short duration, we do not believe that priming of IVs is a promising strategy for science communication.
AB - Strategies for effectively communicating scientific findings to the public are an important and growing area of study. Recognizing that some complex subjects require recipients of information to take a more active role in constructing an understanding, we sought to determine whether it was possible to increase subjects’ intellectual effort via “priming” methodologies. In particular, we asked whether subconsciously priming “intellectual virtues” (IVs), such as curiosity, perseverance, patience, and diligence might improve participants’ effort and performance on various cognitive tasks. In the first experiment, we found no significant differences in either effort or understanding between IV-primed and neutrally-primed individuals across two different priming techniques. The second experiment measured the effect of IV-priming on intellectual effort in simpler, shorter-duration puzzles and exploration activities; here, we observed an effect, but given its low strength and short duration, we do not believe that priming of IVs is a promising strategy for science communication.
KW - Intellectual virtues
KW - priming
KW - science communication
KW - science education
KW - virtue epistemology
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85028874623&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85028874623&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/09515089.2017.1359245
DO - 10.1080/09515089.2017.1359245
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85028874623
SN - 0951-5089
VL - 30
SP - 1141
EP - 1158
JO - Philosophical Psychology
JF - Philosophical Psychology
IS - 8
ER -