2012/07/10 by Peter Ladwig, Kajsa E. Dalrymple, Dominique Brossard +2 · 1 citation
Social Sciences · Decision Sciences · Environmental Science · Psychology · Mathematics · #Climate Change Communication and Perception #Decision-Making and Behavioral Economics #Environmental Education and Sustainability #Psychology #Multilevel model #Ordinary least squares #Cognition #Social psychology #Applied psychology #Statistics #Mathematics
paper · doi:10.1093/scipol/scs048
openalex publication_date 2012/07/10 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/27
This study compares two frequently used operationalizations of understanding: factual knowledge and perceived familiarity. The authors argue that these measurements—which have been used interchangeably in past research—are conceptually distinct and should be treated as such. Using hierarchical linear ordinary least squares regression, this study provides evidence that factual knowledge and perceived familiarity are only slightly correlated and are influenced differently by predicting variables, such as media use and cognitive processing variables. As a result, the use of these measures may result in different assessments of the levels of public understanding, which has important implications for future policy decisions.