Psychology Research Report: Effects of Textual Uncertainty

This report summarizes a psychology research study investigating how textual representations of scientific uncertainty influence laypersons' attitudes. The study, conducted by Winter et al. (2014), involved an online experiment with 78 participants who read articles about the effects of violence in video games, presented in four different versions: neutral, assertive, hedged, and two-sided. The results indicated that the two-sided version fostered a more moderate attitude compared to the basic version, while the assertive version was less impactful. This suggests that participants were skeptical of overly certain statements and more receptive to mixed opinions, especially those with higher cognitive needs. The study's limitations included an unequal distribution of participants and the lack of a baseline for attitude assessment. The research highlights the importance of considering how scientific information is presented to the public and directs future research toward assessing laypersons' comprehension of complex scientific topics.

Running head: PSYCHOLOGY RESEARCH
PSYCHOLOGY RESEARCH
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Research conducted by Winter et al. (2014) investigated the issue of how textual
representations of scientific uncertainty influences common people. An online experiment was
conducted with seventy eight participants based on an article about the effects of violence in
video games has on children. The articles were represented in four distinct versions. Each of the
first three versions contained arguments on the negative effects that were - phrased neutrally,
contained assertive tones, and used formations consisting of hedging. The fourth and last version
contained an additional positive, two sided argument.
There were three hypotheses taken which revolved around how the article topics affected
the readers’ perceptions based on the type of message they carried, need for cognition, and
epistemological beliefs. The procedure involved the parents of minors in reading articles with
one sided basic, assertive, hedged and two sided articles on effect of violent media on children,
followed by a questionnaire. The results indicated that the two sided version enforced a moderate
attitude towards the topic than the basic version whereas the assertive version was found to be
less impactful than the basic. This indicated that the participants’ judgements were sceptical
when overtly absolute statements were presented to them while topics which included no
assertion or presented mixed opinions were more in accordance with the higher cognitive
requirement of the participants.
The limitations of the study included unequal distribution of male and female in an
already small sample size as well as the evaluation of attitudes after exposure to stimulus which
did not provide for a base of reference. For future research the prospect of assessing a
layperson’s comprehension of challenging scientific tasks was directed at.

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References
Winter, S., Krämer, N., Rösner, L., & Neubaum, G. (2014). Don’t Keep It (Too) Simple. Journal
Of Language And Social Psychology, 34(3), 251-272. doi: 10.1177/0261927x14555872