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PhD, University of Minnesota - Twin Cities, 2018

Curriculum Vitae

Dr. Motta is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at Oklahoma State University. He received his PhD in Political Science from the University of Minnesota, where he was also a National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellow and Doctoral Dissertation Fellow. Prior to joining the faculty at OSU, he served as a Science Communication postdoctoral fellow at the Annenberg Public Policy Center (University of Pennsylvania), and was based at the Yale Law School as an affiliated scholar at the Cultural Cognition Project.

His research focuses on a wide range of topics related to American politics, public opinion, science communication, and both health and environmental policy. Dr. Motta is especially interested in identifying the social and political determinants of anti-science attitudes, and investigating their policy impact. He is also broadly interested in designing communication strategies that promote effective engagement between the public and the scientific community on politically contentious issues.

Research Interests

Environmental Policy & Climate Opinion, Public Health, Political Behavior, Political & Science Communication  

Recent Publications

• Motta, Matthew P. & Timothy Callaghan. 2020. “The Pervasiveness and Policy Consequences of Medical Folk Wisdom in the U.S." Scientific Reports (Nature Research)
• Goren, Paul N., Brianna Smith, and Matt Motta. 2020. "Human Values and Sophistication Interaction Theory." Political Behavior.
• Lunz-Trujilo, Kristin, Matthew Motta, Timothy Callaghan, & Steven Sylvester. 2020. “Misinformation about the MMR Vaccine: Identifying Psychological Risk Factors and Effective Corrective Communication Strategies." Political Research Quarterly.
• Motta, Matt, Dan Chapman, Dominik Stecula, and Kathryn Haglin. 2019. An experimental examination of measurement disparities in public climate change beliefs." Climatic Change 154(1-2):  37-47.
• Motta, M. 2018. The enduring effect of scientific interest on trust in climate scientists in the United States. Nature Climate Change, 8(6), 485.
• Motta, M., T. Callaghan, T., & S. Sylvester. 2018. Knowing less but presuming more: Dunning-Kruger effects and the endorsement of anti-vaccine policy attitudes. Social Science & Medicine, 211, 274-281.
• Motta, M. 2018. The dynamics and political implications of anti-intellectualism in the United States."American Politics Research, 46 (3): 465-498.