2026 Scheidel Lecture: Preempting Public Misconceptions About Controversial Science

In this lecture, Dr. Kathleen Hall Jamieson argues that scientists and science communicators would be well served by use of a "mental models" approach to simultaneously increase consequential knowledge and reduce public susceptibility to misconceptions about controversial climate and health findings. By engaging audiences with visual, verbal, or animated models, this approach creates understandings of science on which the audience can draw to recognize and reject consequential misconceptions.