Dietram Scheufele

About

Dietram A. Scheufele is a Professor and Taylor-Bascom Chair in the Life Sciences Communication department at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. He is also an Investigator and Vilas Distinguished Achievement Professor in the Morgridge Institute for Research, as well as a Distinguished Research Fellow at the University of Pennsylvania's Annenberg Public Policy Center. His current research focuses on how algorithmically curated information environments fundamentally reshape how individuals make sense of the world around them. His recent work includes studies on mis- and disinformation, open science, and the societal impacts of emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence and human brain organoids. Throughout his career, Scheufele has held professorships, fellowships, or visiting appointments at several prestigious institutions, including Cornell University, Harvard University, the University of Pennsylvania, Technische Universität Dresden, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster, Universität Wien, and the University of Utah. He is an elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the German National Academy of Science and Engineering, and a fellow of multiple organizations including the American Academy of Political & Social Science, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the International Communication Association, and the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts & Letters. His consulting work…

Research topics

• Political Science
• Sociology
• Public relations
• Computer Science
• Social Science
• Psychology
• Internet privacy
• Law
• Epistemology
• Engineering

Selected publications

• Believing and sharing misinformation, fact-checks, and accurate information on social media: The role of anxiety during COVID-19

  New Media & Society · 2021 · 221 citations

  The COVID-19 pandemic went hand in hand with what some have called a "(mis)infodemic" about the virus on social media. Drawing on partisan motivated reasoning and partisan selective sharing, this study examines the influence of political viewpoints, anxiety, and the interactions of the two on believing and willingness to share false, corrective, and accurate claims about COVID-19 on social media. A large-scale 2 (emotion: anxiety vs relaxation) × 2 (slant of news outlet: MSNBC vs Fox News) exper…

  DOI

• Factuality challenges in the era of large language models and opportunities for fact-checking

  Nature Machine Intelligence · 2024-08-22 · 117 citations

  articleOpen access
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• What we know about effective public engagement on CRISPR and beyond

  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · 2021 · 109 citations

  1st authorCorresponding

  Advances in gene editing technologies for human, plant, and animal applications have led to calls from bench and social scientists, as well as a wide variety of societal stakeholders, for broad public engagement in the decision-making about these new technologies. Unfortunately, there is limited understanding among the groups calling for public engagement on CRISPR and other emerging technologies about 1) the goals of this engagement, 2) the modes of engagement and what we know from systematic s…

  DOI

• In AI We Trust: The Interplay of Media Use, Political Ideology, and Trust in Shaping Emerging AI Attitudes

  Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly · 2023-09-20 · 39 citations

  article

  Using data from a nationally representative survey of U.S. adults, this study explores how trust in key actors to responsibly manage artificial intelligence (AI) develops among members of the U.S. population and how trust, along with other key factors, shapes public attitudes toward AI. Greater trust is linked to stronger support for AI, both directly and indirectly (through risk and benefit perceptions). Furthermore, the strength or direction of the link between trust and support—as well as med…

  PublisherDOI

• Science and Ethics of “Curing” Misinformation

  The AMA Journal of Ethic · 2023-03-01 · 37 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  A growing chorus of academicians, public health officials, and other science communicators have warned of what they see as an ill-informed public making poor personal or electoral decisions. Misinformation is often seen as an urgent new problem, so some members of these communities have pushed for quick but untested solutions without carefully diagnosing ethical pitfalls of rushed interventions. This article argues that attempts to "cure" public opinion that are inconsistent with best available…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Recent grants

• Enabling decision-relevant debates about human genome editing

  NSF · $450k · 2018–2022

Frequent coauthors

• Dominique Brossard

  University of Wisconsin–Madison

  227 shared

• Michael A. Xenos

  University of Wisconsin–Madison

  92 shared

• Elizabeth A. Corley

  Royal Marsden Hospital

  42 shared

• Emily L. Howell

  Texas A&M University

  31 shared

• Sara K. Yeo

  University of Utah

  28 shared

• Michael A. Cacciatore

  University of Georgia

  25 shared

• Leona Yi-Fan Su

  24 shared

• Nicole M. Krause

  23 shared

Education

• Ph.D., Communication

  University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

  1991

• M.S., Communication

  University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

  1987

• B.A., Communication

  University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

  1985

Awards & honors

• Elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
• Elected member of the German National Academy of Science and…
• Fellow of the American Academy of Political & Social Science
• Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Sc…
• Fellow of the International Communication Association

Similar researchers at University of Wisconsin-Madison

• Matt Turnerh-113
• Tony Goldbergh-78
• Stephanie Roberth-76