A Letter from the Institute for Public Relations
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Dear IPR Research Letter Subscribers,
With the increased amount of research and insights due to COVID-19, we are now publishing our IPR Research Letter twice a week.
Don’t forget to check out our list of
COVID-19 research-based resources that we update daily and stay tuned over the next couple of weeks for some exciting IPR news!
Thank you for your support and hope you are all staying safe and healthy.
Best,
Tina McCorkindale (President and CEO) and the IPR Team
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Loose Lips: The Psychology of Rumors During a Crisis
Cathy Faye, Ph.D.,
Behavioral Scientist
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In this article in
Behavioral Scientist
, Dr. Cathy Faye talks about how rumors have historically proliferated in times of crisis, including COVID-19 rumors such as dolphins are swimming in the canals of Venice or gargling with salt water will prevent the coronavirus.
Companies and agencies are devoting time and resources to combatting disinformation (or deliberately misleading information) that has popped up during this pandemic. Faye outlines some of the scholarly research on rumors:
- After analyzing 1,100 wartime rumors, Allport and Postman (1944 ) created a basic rumor formula: R = I x A, or Rumor is a direct function of Importance and Ambiguity. Specifically, “when faced with highly important, but highly ambiguous statements, the rumor will be rampant.”
- Knapp (1944) identified three types of rumors designed to spread misinformation and the psychological functions they serve:
- Wedge drive rumor: Preys on existing hostilities and allows us to find a scapegoat in times of great frustration. (e.g., Chinese created the virus in a lab)
- Pipe dream rumor: Hopes for wished-for outcomes (e.g., gargle salt water to prevent COVID-19)
- Bogie rumor: Fear-based rumors (e.g., US will institute martial law)
Faye concludes the article by outlining the effectiveness of combatting rumors with facts.
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Joseph E. Uscinski, Adam M. Enders, Casey Klofstad, Michelle Seelig, John Funchion, Caleb Everett, Stephan Wuchty, Kamal Premaratne & Manohar Murthi,
Harvard Misinformation Review
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This research study analyzed the psychological foundations of conspiracy beliefs, specifically two conspiracy theories about COVID-19. Based on a survey of 2,023 adults, the research shows that COVID-19 conspiracy beliefs are widespread.
Findings include:
- 29% of respondents agree that the threat of COVID-19 has been exaggerated to damage President Trump; 31% agree that the virus was purposefully created and spread.
- The strongest predictors of beliefs in these ideas are a psychological predisposition to reject expert information and accounts of major events (denialism), a psychological predisposition to view major events as the product of conspiracy theories (conspiracy thinking), and partisan and ideological motivations.
- Support for Donald Trump is strongly related to the belief that the COVID-19 threat has been exaggerated, even when accounting for partisanship and ideology. This relationship is strongest among people who regularly pay attention to politics. The researchers surmise that Trump supporters adopted this belief in response to the President’s early messaging about the virus.
- Belief that the virus was spread on purpose is most related to conspiracy thinking and is only slightly more concentrated among self-identified Republicans and conservatives than Democrats and liberals. This is likely a consequence of the fact that only a few, less salient partisan elites have endorsed this theory.
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How to Read and Understand a Scientific Paper: A Guide for Non-Scientists
Jennifer Raff, Ph.D., The London School of Economics and Political Science
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Reading a scientific paper is a completely different process than reading an article about science in a blog or newspaper. Not only are the sections read in a different order than they’re presented, but readers also have to take notes, read it multiple times, and probably go look up other papers for some of the details.
Reading a single paper may take a long time at first, but the process will go faster with experience.
Jennifer Raff, Ph.D., provides 11 tips to effectively read and understand scientific papers, which include:
- Read the introduction, not the abstract
- Identify the "Big Question"
- Summarize the background in five sentences
- Identify the Specific Questions
- Identify the approach
Discover the other tips and how best to navigate through scientific research.
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COVID-19 Ad Tracker Analyzes How Brands are Communicating with Consumers
Morning Consult
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In the COVID-19 Ad Tracker, Morning Consult is surveying thousands of consumers on key ads during the COVID-19 pandemic to analyze how brands can successfully communicate with consumers.
The database examining COVID-19 messaging includes dozens of ads from companies including Dove, Toyota, Uber, and more.
This database found that fully one in three ads are viewed positively by at least 80% of respondents. To put this in context, only one ad in the Morning Consult Super Bowl tracking and no ads in the Morning Consult NFL tracker saw positive ratings of 80% or higher.
Users can click on each ad to find out the overall performance of each ad, as well as its rating on multiple key metrics (e.g., favorability, trust, purchase intent, etc.) and how it compares with the overall average.
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As virtual semesters come to an end, graduations are cancelled, and internships and entry level jobs dry up, the PR Council (PRC) is providing a learning, networking and resume-building opportunity to support the next generation of PR professionals. Targeting college students and 2020 graduates interested in public relations agency careers, PRC is offering a free Agency-Ready Certificate Program and career portal.
Set to begin in early June and run for eight weeks, the program will include agency leader-led webinars on critical subject areas such as strategic planning, applying data, social media strategy, crisis communications, medical writing, etc. Instruction on commonly used tech platforms and PR measurement are also planned. Interested students can register now!
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