Communicating the economic impact of NIH funding cuts changes attitudes and motivates action

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Alyssa H. Sinclair, Mallory Harris, Danielle Cosme, Angela Fagerlin, Ellen Peters, Clio Andris, Colin L. Cooke, Emily B. Falk, Joshua S. Weitz
PsyArXiv, 2025 Aug 4

DOI: 10.31234/osf.io/bj857_v1

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APA Click to copy
Sinclair, A. H., Harris, M., Cosme, D., Fagerlin, A., Peters, E., Andris, C., … Weitz, J. S. (2025). Communicating the economic impact of NIH funding cuts changes attitudes and motivates action. PsyArXiv. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/bj857_v1

Chicago/Turabian Click to copy
Sinclair, Alyssa H., Mallory Harris, Danielle Cosme, Angela Fagerlin, Ellen Peters, Clio Andris, Colin L. Cooke, Emily B. Falk, and Joshua S. Weitz. “Communicating the Economic Impact of NIH Funding Cuts Changes Attitudes and Motivates Action.” PsyArXiv (August 4, 2025).

MLA Click to copy
Sinclair, Alyssa H., et al. “Communicating the Economic Impact of NIH Funding Cuts Changes Attitudes and Motivates Action.” PsyArXiv, Aug. 2025, doi:10.31234/osf.io/bj857_v1.

BibTeX Click to copy

@article{alyssa2025a,
  title = {Communicating the economic impact of NIH funding cuts changes attitudes and motivates action},
  year = {2025},
  month = aug,
  day = {4},
  journal = {PsyArXiv},
  doi = {10.31234/osf.io/bj857_v1},
  author = {Sinclair, Alyssa H. and Harris, Mallory and Cosme, Danielle and Fagerlin, Angela and Peters, Ellen and Andris, Clio and Cooke, Colin L. and Falk, Emily B. and Weitz, Joshua S.},
  month_numeric = {8}
}

In the United States, cuts to federal science funding will have widespread negative consequences for research, healthcare, and local economies. Communicating the impact of funding cuts is critical for informing policymakers and the public. In two preregistered psychological experiments (N=5,342), we tested text, quiz, and map-based interventions that illustrated economic losses associated with NIH funding cuts. Across the political spectrum, the interventions decreased approval of funding cuts, and increased perceived knowledge and perceived negative local impact. Interactive interventions featuring quizzes and maps increased action intentions (e.g., contacting congressional representatives). We scaled these interventions by creating a public website; user data revealed converging evidence of effectiveness. Overall, scalable interventions that interactively communicated economic impact changed attitudes and motivated action to support science funding.