Ellen Peters

Around the world, people rate their personal vulnerability to climate change as lower than it is for other people, including their neighbors.

Climate change risk for thee but not for me!
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

The Public Health Heroes of 2025 The Trump administration wants to destroy our health infrastructure. These warriors aren't letting that happen without a fight.

Many thanks to cofounder @asinclair.bsky.social & the entire SCIMaP team (scienceimpacts.org) for collaborative work to confront federal cuts to science and medical research; together, our effort was recognized as a 2025 Public Health Hero in @thenation.com.

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www.thenation.com/article/soci...

Elon Musk is set to make more than every U.S. elementary teacher combined See how your profession stacks up against Musk’s pay. By Alyssa Fowers and Leslie Shapiro

Every elementary school teacher On average, Musk will make $3 billion more per year than the 1.4 million elementary school teachers in the U.S. combined. Each figure represents 1,500 elementary school teachers. Together, they made $97 billion last year

Humans are bad at big numbers. Which makes it easier for billionaires (and trillionaires) to get away with hoarding wealth. Because most people just can't comprehend how much money that is.

So, I appreciate this WaPo effort to help people visualize what ridiculous amounts of wealth really mean.

A woman from the FDA’s Center for Devices & Radiological Health explains how her entire department was gutted

That means there’s no staff to alert you if your pacemaker is recalled

If an implantable device in your body is toxic or broken

This could have catastrophic health impacts & cost lives

Super interesting test of single blind vs double blind review.
@angiefagerlin.bsky.social

Amidst a government shutdown in which the White House has proposed slashing federal support of science by billions of dollars, our #SCIMaP team continues to assess the impact of research cuts on communities nationwide.

Learn more about our efforts: scienceimpacts.org

With more to come...

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YouTube video by Avantis Investors The Behavioral Divide Episode 14: From Numbers to Meaning: Rethinking Risk Communication

How we communicate risk statistics can matter as much as what we communicate.

I was lucky enough to share this conversation with @hal-hershfield.bsky.social and Mark Meredith, founder of Meredith Wealth Planning.

Check it out: www.youtube.com/watch?v=pKHa...

#numeracy #risk

SCIMaP job opportunity - https://umd.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/UMCP/job/Research-Communications-and-Media-Outreach-Specialist_JR102577

Best consideration deadline, Friday Oct 10:

#SCIMaP (scienceimacts.org) seeks to hire a Research Communications and Media Outreach Specialist at U-Maryland to facilitate public engagement related to federal investment in science and health research.

umd.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/UMCP/j...

Penny wise, pound foolish: The cost of reduced support for measles prevention Measles, a vaccine-preventable disease previously declared eliminated in the United States, is reemerging with over 1400 cases reported in 2025. This …

T. Joseph Mattingly estimates that the 2025 measles outbreak in Texas will cost $90M. Measles is expensive. It's also preventable. Vaccination increases productivity & reduces costs.

Vaccination is healthy for people & the economy.

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

New job 🚨:

Our #SCIMaP (scienceimpacts.org) team is searching for a Research Communications and Media Outreach Specialist to facilitate public engagement related to federal investment in science and health research.

Application review starts Oct 10:
umd.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/UMCP/j...

NSF invests in science, technology, and education in all 50 states. Cutting it this much will cause substantial losses to communities around the US

Trump's moves against media outlets mirror authoritarian approaches to silencing dissent Since taking office in January, President Donald Trump has waged an aggressive campaign against the media unlike any in modern U.S. history, making moves similar to those of authoritarian leaders that...

“What we’re seeing is an unprecedented attempt to silence disfavored speech by the government,” said Brendan Nyhan, a political scientist at Dartmouth College. “Donald Trump is trying to dictate what Americans can say.” https://to.pbs.org/46AYg7U

Examining the interplay of risk and affect over time Research on the relation between affect and risk perceptions offers two competing perspectives. Decades of research on the affect-heuristic and risk-as-feelings hypotheses situates affect as centra...

Title: Examining the interplay of risk and affect over time

Paper: www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

First 50 copies are free here: www.tandfonline.com/eprint/ARGXV...

Kudos to Dan Chapman for leading the paper! @uoregon.bsky.social

🚨 New in J of Risk Research
💡 Neg affect-risk perc correlated in 6 waves Yr1 COVID consistent w affect heuristic
💡 Affect preceded risk perc btw waves
💡But paths of risk perc to affect were stronger
💡Why? Waves were 2–22 wk apart and strength of affect-risk relation stronger w less time for thinking

It’s hard to make good decisions if you don’t understand numbers.

This numeracy shapes the quality of our daily lives in ways we might not realize.

Many thanks to the American Psychological Association's award-winning podcast: at.apa.org/qz2

#numeracy #math #numbers #decisionmaking #psychology

SCIMaP - Impacts of Federal Cuts to Science and Medical Research View Projected Impact of the FY2026 Budget Cuts to the NIH

The White House FY26 budget proposal slashes NIH funding of medical research and will lead to economic and job losses in community nationwide. Our (updated) #SCIMaP analysis now includes state-level scorecards

Go to scienceimpacts.org/fy26

Click on any state (or House District) to learn more.

SCIMaP - Impacts of Federal Cuts to Science and Medical Research Developed by an interdisciplinary research team, this website shows how funding cuts reduce economic activity and employment nationwide

Longer posts soon on recent exec orders that threaten the vitality of America's research capacity, but wanted to step back and highlight the release of in-depth analyses that directly confront the economic impacts of administration decisions building on viz at scienceimpacts.org

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📣 New preprint from the SCIMaP team!

Across three studies, we show that communicating the economic impact of NIH funding cuts—especially with interactive quizzes and maps—decreases approval and motivates action to oppose the cuts, across the political spectrum. 🧵 1/8
osf.io/preprints/ps...

As Trump and his allies in Congress try to gut public funding for PBS, watch this 1971 clip of Rev. Jesse Jackson and the kids of Sesame Street.

This is why we need public broadcasting.

Um, that's not science

We just went to Dishoom but didn't get to play. Now I want to go back!

Experiencing extreme weather events alone isn't enough to drive support for climate policies. People need to believe these events are actually linked to climate change. This is why effective climate communication is so important. Another valuable contribution from the TISP consortium! 👏

Heat Check

Great advice from @americanredcross.bsky.social about what to look for and what to do when temperatures and humidity get high. www.redcross.org/get-help/how... h/t @maibached.bsky.social

Here’s Your Cheat Sheet for Vaccine Recommendations Backed by Science These graphics will guide you through science-based vaccine guidelines for children and adults

Vaccination schedules on the CDC website have already started changing under RFK Jr. So we published a guide to the evidence-based vaccine recommendations in place *before* all 17 members of the advisory panel were abruptly dismissed by the new admin. www.scientificamerican.com/article/see-... 🧪

Economic loss due to NIH budget cuts by congressional district, scienceimpacts.org/fy26

The #SCIMaP team announces a major update: an analysis of the economic impacts of the White House's NIH FY26 budget.

Bottom-line, we estimate $46B in total economic loss, 202K lost jobs, and impacts in communities nationwide.

Interactive map and shareable report:
scienceimpacts.org/fy26

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Update to https://scienceimpacts.org to include terminated grants

Major update to #SCIMaP visualization of impacts of cuts to federally supported health research. Map now includes information on future economic losses (impact of proposed reduction of NIH IDC to 15%) and current economic losses (impact of terminated NIH grants).

scienceimpacts.org

www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/202...

NIH indirect cost cuts will affect the economy and employment Nature Human Behaviour - NIH indirect cost cuts will affect the economy and employment

Joint w/@asinclair.bsky.social and the #SCIMaP team: brief correspondence in @nathumbehav.nature.com on the impact of NIH indirect cost cuts on the economy and employment, impacts that will only worsen given similar proposals for NSF/DOE + overall science proposal.

rdcu.be/eo3Hp

Dan Chapman and Brittany Shoots-Reinhard are also authors but they are not on BlueSky!

The power of numbers in natural hazard communication Challenges and opportunities exist when communicating geohazard risks with numeric evidence. Public innumeracy and experts’ concerns about providing numbers, for example, suggest not showing them. ...

We review pros+cons of communicating geohazard risks w/#s + theory-based strategies: 1) provide #s, 2) make #s manageable, 3) make #s meaningful, and 4) don’t let stories displace #s
www.tandfonline.com/eprint/7AUDR...
@universityoforegon.bsky.social @uosojc.bsky.social
w/ @ashliblow.bsky.social