Many of the resources developed to promote the use of evidence in policy aspire to an ideal of rational decision making, yet their basis in the decision sciences is often unclear. Tracing the historical development of evidence-informed policy to its roots in "evidence-based medicine" (EBM), we distinguish between two understandings of…

In today's knowledge economy, it is critical to make decisions based on high-quality evidence. Science-related decision-making is thought to rely on a complex interplay of reasoning skills, cognitive styles, attitudes, and motivations toward information. By investigating the relationship between individual differences and behaviors related to…

Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) can be considered an important tool for professionals to reskill and upskill as well as a cost-efficient way to stay relevant. However, evidence-based research is still needed to identify why specific categories of people, especially professionals, take paid MOOCs. The paper aims to analyze the factors that…

Despite claims that we now live in a post-truth society, it remains commonplace for policy makers to consult research evidence to increase the robustness of decision making. Few scholars of evidence-policy interfaces, however, have used legislatures as sites of study, despite the fact that they play a critical role in modern democracies. There is…

This article explores the initial results produced by the European Commission's "better regulation agenda", which aims to stimulate productivity and employment, on the use of evidence and its potential to enhance democratic governance. The article finds that implausible rational models of policy making dictate the ways in which the…