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All IPCC definitions taken from Climate Change 2007: The Physical Science Basis. Working Group I Contribution to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Annex I, Glossary, pp. 941-954. Cambridge University Press.

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John Cook

John Cook is a Senior Research Fellow with the Melbourne Centre for Behaviour Change at the University of Melbourne. He obtained his PhD at the University of Western Australia, studying the cognitive psychology of climate science denial. His research focus is understanding and countering misinformation about climate change. In 2007, he founded Skeptical Science, a website which won the 2011 Australian Museum Eureka Prize for the Advancement of Climate Change Knowledge and 2016 Friend of the Planet Award from the National Center for Science Education. John authored the book Cranky Uncle vs. Climate Change, that combines climate science, critical thinking, and cartoons to explain and counter climate misinformation. He also co-authored the college textbooks Climate Change: Examining the Facts and Climate Change Science: A Modern Synthesis and the book Climate Change Denial: Heads in the Sand. In 2013, he published a paper finding 97% scientific consensus on human-caused global warming, a finding that has been highlighted by President Obama and UK Prime Minister David Cameron.

Publications

Books, Booklets, Textbooks & Dissertation

Lewandowsky, S., Cook, J., Schmid, P., Holford, D. L., Finn, A., Leask, J., Thomson, A., Lombardi, D., Al-Rawi, A. K., Amazeen, M. A., Anderson, E. C., Armaos, K. D., Betsch, C., Bruns, H. H. B., Ecker, U. K. H., Gavaruzzi, T., Hahn, U., Herzog, S., Juanchich, M., Kendeou, P., Newman, E. J., Pennycook, G., Rapp, D. N., Sah, S., Sinatra, G. M., Tapper, K., Vraga, E. K (2021). The COVID-19 Vaccine Communication Handbook. A practical guide for improving vaccine communication and fighting misinformation. Available at: https://sks.to/c19vax

Lewandowsky, S., Cook, J., Ecker, U. K. H., Albarracín, D., Amazeen, M. A., Kendeou, P., Lombardi, D., Newman, E. J., Pennycook, G., Porter, E. Rand, D. G., Rapp, D. N., Reifler, J., Roozenbeek, J., Schmid, P., Seifert, C. M., Sinatra, G. M., Swire-Thompson, B., van der Linden, S., Vraga, E. K., Wood, T. J., Zaragoza, M. S. (2020). The Debunking Handbook 2020. Available at https://sks.to/db2020. DOI:10.17910/b7.1182

Cook, J. (2020). Cranky Uncle vs. Climate Change: How to Understand and Respond to Climate Science Deniers. New York, NY: Citadel Press.

Lewandowsky, S., & Cook, J. (2020). The Conspiracy Theory Handbook. Available at http://sks.to/conspiracy

Cook, J., Supran, G., Lewandowsky, S., Oreskes, N., & Maibach, E., (2019). America Misled: How the fossil fuel industry deliberately misled Americans about climate change. Fairfax, VA: George Mason University Center for Climate Change Communication. Available at https://www.climatechangecommunication.org/america-misled/

Cook, J., van der Linden, S., Maibach, E., & Lewandowsky, S. (2018). The Consensus Handbook. DOI:10.13021/G8MM6P. Available at http://sks.to/chb

Cook, J. (2016). Closing the “consensus gap” by communicating the scientific consensus on climate change and countering misinformation. (Doctoral dissertation, University of Western Australia).

Bedford, D., & Cook, J. (2016). Climate Change: Examining the Facts. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO.

Farmer, G. T. & Cook, J. (2013). Climate Change Science: A Modern Synthesis. Dordrecht, Netherlands: Springer Science+Business Media.

Cook, J., & Lewandowsky, S. (2011). The Debunking Handbook. St. Lucia, Australia: University of Queensland. ISBN 978-0-646-56812-6. Available at http://sks.to/debunk.

Washington, H. & Cook, J. (2011). Climate Change Denial: Heads in the Sand, Earthscan, Oxford, UK.

Cook, J. (2010). The Scientific Guide to Global Warming Skepticism, Cook, J., http://sks.to/guide.

Book Chapters

Cook, J. (2020). Deconstructing Climate Science Denial. In Holmes, D. & Richardson, L. M. (Eds.) Edward Elgar Research Handbook in Communicating Climate Change. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.

Cook, J. (2020). Consensus on Consensus: Countering Misinformation Targeting Expert Agreement on Climate Change. World Science Encyclopedia of Climate Change: Finance, Economics and Policy. World Scientific.

Winkler, B., Rice, K., Lubitz, T., & Cook, J. (2020). Skeptical Science. World Science Encyclopedia of Climate Change: Finance, Economics and Policy. World Scientific.

Cook, J. (2019). Chapter 9 : Is Emphasising Consensus In Climate Science Helpful For Policymaking? YES : Failure to communicate consensus leaves the public vulnerable to misinformation. In Hulme, M. (Ed.) Contemporary Climate Change Debates: A Student Primer. Abingdon, UK: Routledge. (full paper)

Cook, J. (2019). Understanding and countering misinformation about climate change. In Samoilenko, S., & Chiluwa, I. (Eds.), Handbook of Research on Deception, Fake News, and Misinformation Online (pp. 281-306). Hershey, PA: IGI-Global.

Cook, J. (2019). Turning climate misinformation into an educational opportunity. In J. C. Fessmann (Ed.), Strategic Climate Change Communications: Effective Approaches to Fighting Climate Denial (pp. 27-44). Wilmington, DE: Vernon Press.

Cook, J. (2016). Countering climate science denial and communicating scientific consensus. In M. Nisbett (Ed.), Oxford Encyclopedia of Climate Change Communication. London: Oxford University Press.

Cook, J. (2014). How Has the Carbon Tax Affected the Public ‘Debate’ on Climate Change? Quiggin, J., Adamson, D., & Quiggin, D. (Eds.), In Carbon Pricing: Early Experience and Future Prospects (pp. 49-64). Cheltenham Glos: Edward Elgar Publishing.

Journal Articles & Conference Proceedings

McKasy, M., Cacciatore, M. A., Yeo, S. K., Zhang, J. S., Cook, J., & Olaleye, R. M. (2021, August). The Impact of Emotion and Humor on Support for Global Warming Action. Annual Conference of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC), New Orleans, LA (virtual).

van der Linden, S., Dixon, G., Clarke, C., & Cook, J. (2021). Inoculating against COVID-19 vaccine misinformation. ECliicalMedicine. doi:10.1016/j.eclinm.2021.100772

Coan, T. G., Boussalis, C., & Cook, J. (in review). Computer-assisted detection of misinformation about climate change. https://osf.io/preprints/socarxiv/crxfm/

Compton, J., van der Linden, S., Cook, J., & Basol, M. (2021). Inoculation theory in the post?truth era: Extant findings and new frontiers for contested science, misinformation, and conspiracy theories. Annals of the International Communication Association. https://doi.org/10.1111/spc3.12602

Kim, S. C., Vraga, E. K., & Cook, J. (2020). An Eye Tracking Approach to Understanding Misinformation and Correction Strategies on Social Media: The Mediating Role of Attention and Credibility to Reduce HPV Vaccine Misperceptions. Health Communication, 1-10.

Vraga, E. K., Kim, S. C., Cook, J., & Bode, L. (2020). Testing the Effectiveness of Correction Placement and Type on Instagram. The International Journal of Press/Politics, 1940161220919082.

Ecker, U. K. H., Butler, L. H., Cook, J., Hurlstone, M. J., Kurz, T., Lewandowsky, S. (2020). Using the COVID-19 Economic Crisis to Frame Climate Change as a Secondary Issue Reduces Mitigation Support. Journal of Environmental Psychology.

Vraga, E. K., Kim, S. C., & Cook, J. (2019). Testing Logic-based and Humor-based Corrections for Science, Health, and Political Misinformation on Social Media. Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, 63(3), 393-414.

Lewandowsky, S., Cook, J., Fay, N., & Gignac, G. E. (2019). Science by Social Media: Attitudes Towards Climate Change are Mediated by Perceived Social Consensus. Memory & Cognition. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13421-019-00948-y

Cook, J. (2018). Understanding and countering climate science denial. Journal & Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales, 150(2), 207–219.

Cook, J., Ellerton, P., and Kinkead, D. (2018). Deconstructing climate misinformation to identify reasoning errors. Environmental Research Letters, 11(2).

Cook, J., Winkler, B., Finn, C., & Dodgen, T. (2017, January). Challenges and learning opportunities in a controversial MOOC forum on climate science denial. In 10th International Conference of Education, Research and Innovation (Iceri2017) (pp. 3460-3468). IATED Academy.

Lewandowsky, S., Ecker, U. K., & Cook, J. (2017). Letting the Gorilla Emerge From the Mist: Getting Past Post-Truth. Journal of Applied Research in Memory and Cognition, 6(4), 418-424.

van der Linden, S., Maibach, E., Cook, J., Leiserowitz, A., Lewandowsky, S. (2017). Inoculating against misinformation. Science, 358(6367), 1141-1142.

Lewandowsky, S., Ecker, U. K., & Cook, J. (2017). Beyond Misinformation: Understanding and Coping with the “Post-Truth” Era. Journal of Applied Research in Memory and Cognition, 6(4), 353-369.

Cook, J. (2017). Response by Cook to “Beyond Counting Climate Consensus. Environmental Communication, 1-3.

van der Linden, S., Maibach, E., Cook, J., Leiserowitz, A., Ranney, M., Lewandowsky, S., Árvai, J., & Weber, E. U. (2017). Culture versus cognition is a false dilemma. Nature Climate Change, 7(7), 457-457.

Cook, J., Lewandowsky, S., & Ecker, U. (2017). Neutralizing misinformation through inoculation: Exposing misleading argumentation techniques reduces their influence. PLOS ONE, 12(5): e0175799.

Skuce, A. G., Cook, J., Richardson, M., Winkler, B., Rice, K., Green, S. A., ... & Nuccitelli, D. (2017). Does It Matter if the Consensus on Anthropogenic Global Warming Is 97% or 99.99%? Bulletin of Science, Technology & Society, 0270467617702781.

Cook, J. (2017). How to Effectively Debunk Myths About Aging and Other Misconceptions. Public Policy and Aging Report. 27(1), 13-17. doi: 10.1093/ppar/prw034

Lewandowsky, S., Cook, J., & Lloyd, E. (2016). The `Alice in Wonderland' Mechanics of the Rejection of (Climate) Science: Simulating Coherence by Conspiracism, Synthese, 195(1), 175-196.

Cook, J., Oreskes, N., Doran, P. T., Anderegg, W. R. L., Verheggen, B., Maibach, E. W., Carlton, J.S., Lewandowsky, S., Green, S. A., Skuce, A. G., Nuccitelli, D., Jacobs, P., Richardson, M., Winkler, B., Painting, R., Rice, K. (2016). Consensus on consensus: a synthesis of consensus estimates on human-caused global warming. Environmental Research Letters, 11(4), 048002.

Cook, J. & Lewandowsky, S. (2016). Rational Irrationality: Modeling Climate Change Belief Polarization Using Bayesian Networks. Topics in Cognitive Science. 8(1), 160-179.

Cook, J., & Cowtan, K. (2015). Reply to Comment on ‘Quantifying the consensus on anthropogenic global warming in the scientific literature’. Environmental Research Letters, 10(3), 039002.

Cook, J., Ecker, U. & Lewandowsky, S. (2015). Misinformation and how to correct it, Emerging Trends in the Social and Behavioral Sciences. Robert Scott and Stephen Kosslyn (Eds.), Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley and Sons.

Benestad, R. E., Nuccitelli, D., Lewandowsky, S., Hayhoe, K., Hygen, H. O., van Dorland, R., & Cook, J. (2015). Learning from mistakes in climate research. Theoretical and Applied Climatology, 1-5.

Lewandowsky, S., Cook, J., Oberauer, K., Brophy, S., Lloyd, E. A., & Marriott, M. (2015). Recurrent Fury: Conspiratorial Discourse in the Blogosphere Triggered by Research on the Role of Conspiracist Ideation in Climate Denial. Journal of Social and Political Psychology, 3(1), 142-178.

Abraham, J. P., Cook, J., Fasullo, J. T., Jacobs, P. H., Mandia, S. A. & Nuccitelli, D. A. (2014). Review of the Consensus and Asymmetric Quality of Research on Human-Induced Climate Change, Cosmopolis, 2014-1, 3-18.

Cook, J. & Jacobs, P. (2014). Scientists are from Mars, Laypeople are from Venus: An Evidence-Based Rationale for Communicating the Consensus on Climate. Reports of the National Center for Science Education. 34, 6, 3.1-3.10.

Cook, J., Nuccitelli, D., Skuce, A., Way, R., Jacobs, P., Painting, R., Lewandowsky, S. & Coulter, A. (2014). 24 critical errors in Tol (2014): Reaffirming the 97% consensus on anthropogenic global warming. http://sks.to/tolreply

Cook, J., Bedford, D. & Mandia, S. (2014). Raising Climate Literacy Through Addressing Misinformation: Case Studies in Agnotology-Based Learning. Journal of Geoscience Education, 62(3), 296-306.

Cook, J., Nuccitelli, D., Skuce, A., Way, R., Jacobs, P., Painting, R., Honeycutt, R., Green, S.A. (2014). Reply to Comment on ‘Quantifying the consensus on anthropogenic global warming in the scientific literature: a Reanalysis’. Energy Policy. DOI: 10.1016/j.enpol.2014.06.002

Verheggen, B., Strengers, B., Cook, J., van Dorland, R., Vringer, K., Peters, J., Visser, H. & Meyer, L. (2014). Scientists’ views about attribution of global warming. Environmental science & technology, 48(16), 8963-8971.

Bedford, D., & Cook, J. (2013). Agnotology, Scientific Consensus, and the Teaching and Learning of Climate Change: A Response to Legates, Soon and Briggs. Science & Education, 22(8), 2019-2030.

Cook, J., Nuccitelli, D., Green, S.A., Richardson, M., Winkler, B., Painting, R., Way, R., Jacobs, P., & Skuce, A. (2013). Quantifying the consensus on anthropogenic global warming in the scientific literature. Environmental Research Letters, 8(2), 024024+.

Lewandowsky, S., Ecker, U. K. H., Seifert, C. M., Schwarz, N., & Cook, J. (2012). Misinformation and its correction: Continued influence and successful debiasing. Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 13, 106-131.

Nuccitelli, D., Way, R., Painting, R., Church, J., & Cook, J. (2012). Comment on ocean heat content and Earth's radiation imbalance. II. Relation to climate shifts. Physics Letters A, 376(45), 3466-3468.

Massive Open Online Course (MOOC)

Cook, J., Schuennemann, K., Nuccitelli, D., Jacobs, P., Cowtan, K., Green, S., Way, R., Richardson, M., Cawley, G., Mandia, S., Skuce, A., & Bedford, D. (April 2015). Making Sense of Climate Science Denial. edX. http://edx.org/understanding-climate-denial