Chelsea Ratcliff is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication Studies at UGA. She uses empirical research methods to address pressing questions in ComSHER (Communicating Science, Health, Environment, and Risk), especially questions about how to effectively convey complex and uncertain scientific evidence to diverse audiences.
Current projects of the Communicating Uncertain Science to the Public (CUSP) Lab include examining the social, ethical, and psychological consequences of approaches to communicating uncertainty in health contexts (e.g., vaccines, COVID-19, climate change). Dr. Ratcliff draws on a decade of professional experience in health journalism and marketing to inform her research. Her work has been published in Communication Research, Human Communication Research, Science Communication, Health Communication, Public Understanding of Science, Risk Analysis, Annals of Behavioral Medicine, and American Journal of Public Health, among others. You can learn more about Dr. Ratcliff's CUSP Lab here.
Dr. Ratcliff's areas of expertise include:
- Public understanding of science communication
- News coverage of health science
- Message effects
- Mass media health campaign design
- Psychological reactance & resistance to persuasion
- Ethical and social consequences of communication
PhD (Communication, University of Utah)
MA (Communication, University of Utah)
Selected Publications
- Ratcliff, C. L., Harvill, B., & Wicke, R. (2023). Understanding Public Preferences for Learning About Uncertain Science: Measurement and Individual Difference Correlates. Frontiers in Communication.
- Ratcliff, C. L., Fleerackers, A., Wicke, R., Harvill, B., King, A. J., & Jensen, J. D. (2023). Framing COVID-19 vaccine preprint research as uncertain: A mixed-method study of public reactions. Health Communication. doi:10.1080/10410236.2023.2164954
- Ratcliff, C. L. & Wicke, R. (2022). How the public evaluates media representations of uncertain science: An integrated explanatory framework. Public Understanding of Science. doi:10.1177/09636625221122960
- Ratcliff, C. L., Wicke, R., & Harvill, B. (2022). Communicating uncertainty to the public during the COVID-19 pandemic: A scoping review of the literature. Annals of the International Communication Association. doi:10.1080/23808985.2022.2085136
- Ratcliff, C. L. (2021). Communicating scientific uncertainty across the dissemination trajectory: A precision medicine case study. Science Communication. doi:10.1177/10755470211038335
- Ratcliff, C. L., Wong, B., Jensen, J. D., & Kaphingst, K. A. (2021). The impact of communicating uncertainty on public responses to precision medicine research. Annals of Behavioral Medicine. doi:10.1093/abm/kaab050
- Ratcliff, C. L., Krakow, M., Greenberg-Worisek, A., & Hesse, B. W. (2021). Digital health engagement in the US population: Insights from the 2018 Health Information National Trends Survey. American Journal of Public Health. doi:10.2105/AJPH.2021.306282
- Ratcliff, C. L. & Sun, Y. (2020). Overcoming resistance through narrative communication: Findings from a meta-analytic review. Human Communication Research. doi:10.1093/hcr/hqz017
- Ratcliff, C. L. (2019). Characterizing reactance in communication research: A review of conceptual and operational approaches. Communication Research. doi:10.1177/0093650219872126
- Ratcliff, C. L., Jensen, J. D., Scherr, C. L., Krakow, M., & Crossley, K. (2019). Loss/gain framing, dose, and reactance: A message experiment. Risk Analysis. doi:10.1111/risa.13379
- Ratcliff, C. L., Kaphingst, K. A., & Jensen, J. D. (2018). When personal feels invasive: Foreseeing challenges in precision medicine communication. Journal of Health Communication. doi:10.1080/10810730.2017.1417514
- Research with UGA students on public preferences for learning about uncertain science published in Frontiers of Communication.
- Research on public understanding of scientific preprints featured in UGA Columns.
- Scoping review on COVID-19 uncertainty communication published with students Rebekah Wicke and Blue Harvill in the Annals of the ICA.
- Study of how public audiences evaluate media representations of uncertain science with graduate student Rebekah Wicke published in Public Understanding of Science.
- Awarded a top faculty paper award with MA student Rebekah Wicke from the Communicating Science, Health, Environment & Risk (comSHER) division of the Association for Education in Journalism & Mass Communication, for the paper "How Lay Audiences Evaluate Scientific Uncertainty Disclosure: The Moderating Roles of Source and Preference for Communication of Uncertainty."
- Research featured in an editorial from Annals of Behavioral Medicine about the importance of examining communication of uncertainty in precision medicine.