Details a study showing that government sources in the United States are less credible than they were shown to be in a study conducted 19 years ago. (Author/FL)

Used various suggestive techniques in repeated interviews with preschool children to elicit narratives about true and fictional events. Found that fictional narratives contained more spontaneous details, more elaborations, and more aggressive details than true narratives. Across retellings, false narratives were less consistent but contained more…

Two competing approaches to policy analysis are distinguished: a credibility approach, and a truth approach. According to the credibility approach, the policy analyst's role is to search for plausible argument rather than truth. Each approach has pragmatic tradeoffs in fulfilling the goal of providing usable knowledge to decision makers. (TJH)

Given the widespread acceptance of pseudoscientific and paranormal beliefs, this article suggests that science educators need to seriously consider the problem of how these beliefs can be combated. Proposes teaching science students to critically evaluate the claims of pseudoscience and the paranormal. (LZ)

The effects of rumor contents on rumor transmission were investigated among college students, and, as predicted, a dread rumor was heard and passed by more individuals than a wish rumor. Dread rumors may arouse anxiety because they forecast unpleasant outcomes for persons of lower social power or limited control capacities. (22 references) (LB)

States that a four-week case study of a radio newsroom's source delivered material ("information subsidies") found only 19% of items collected were used to make up part of a newscast. Finds 20% of information subsidies were never "opened." Suggests news directors place more emphasis on source credibility and power perception…

Examines whether readers' perceptions of online news stories varies as a function of source attribution in those stories. Finds that they rated stories with quotes significantly higher in credibility and quality than identical stories without quotes; but that quotes did not affect liking for (and representativeness or newsworthiness of) online…

The five recipients of the 1995 Meritorious Budget Award (MBA) found achieving a standard of excellence in budget documentation and presentation that the board, community, and local press could understand enormously challenging. Designed for school systems, the American Association of School Business Officials' MBA program effectively communicates…

Three experiments examined 3- to 5-year-olds' use of eye gaze cues to infer truth in a deceptive situation. Children watched a video of an actor who hid a toy in 1 of 3 cups. In Experiments 1 and 2, the actor claimed ignorance about the toy's location but looked toward 1 of the cups, without (Experiment 1) and with (Experiment 2) head movement. In…

This paper demonstrates how the introduction of the word scholarship in respect to teaching has become confused and misplaced and used to sustain and enhance a particular type of credibility to activities related to the enhancement of learning and teaching in higher education. Bourdieu's concept of symbolic culture is used to construct the…

The world regards AIDS as the most disastrous health threat in the world. HIV/AIDS- related issues amongst adolescents were initially neglected due to the visible impact of this pandemic on babies and adults. Adolescents' behavior is however regarded as high-risk because of their involvement in sexual activities from a young age. The purpose of…

A communication framework of persuasion and attitude change was utilized to analyze parent-adolescent communication about adolescent risk behavior. Three parent dimensions were deemed important: (a) perceived expertise, (b) perceived trustworthiness, and (c) perceived accessibility. Data were collected in surveys from 668 mother-adolescent dyads…

Plausibility has been implicated as playing a critical role in many cognitive phenomena from comprehension to problem solving. Yet, across cognitive science, plausibility is usually treated as an operationalized variable or metric rather than being explained or studied in itself. This article describes a new cognitive model of plausibility, the…

Metaphors are powerful in describing organizations (Morgan, 1986; 1998) and stories reveal the meaning of experiences (Kouzes & Posner, 1993). As an avid skier and school change leader, the author has drawn on her personal experiences and the literature to develop the idea of improving skiing as a metaphor for improving leadership, particularly…