Poster #21 - Fighting Fire With Fire: Using Personal Anecdotes to Combat Socioscientific Misconceptions

• In Event: 75.043 - MTCC Poster Session 17
  In Poster Session: 75.043-5 - Epistemic and Generative Interventions Promoting Learning Outcomes

Abstract

We examined whether the use of personal anecdotes could promote knowledge revision.
Participants read refutation-plus-explanation, refutation-only, and explanation-only texts that addressed misconceptions about vaccines and autism. Texts were either framed as personal anecdotes or traditional expository texts. The results showed that participants read target sentences of the correct idea faster when texts were framed as personal anecdotes, suggesting that texts with anecdotal features facilitated greater knowledge revision than texts framed as expository texts. Posttest findings showed that participants performed significantly less accurately when they read texts that refuted misconceptions but did not explain the correct idea (i.e. refutation-only texts).

Authors

• Reese Butterfuss, Arizona State University

• Jasmine Kim, University of Minnesota - Twin Cities

• Katherine Hock

• Susan R. Goldman, University of Illinois at Chicago

• Panayiota Kendeou, University of Minnesota