An excellent conversation with Professor Barbara Hofer on her brilliant new book, Science Denial: Why it Happens and What to Do About It. We go deep on climate denial and also the COVID vaccines and masks.

Barbara Hofer is a Professor of Psychology at Middlebury College, and is an educational, developmental, and cultural psychologist. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Michigan from the Combined Program in Education and Psychology, with a certificate in Culture and Cognition; an Ed.M. in Human Development from the Harvard Graduate School of Education; and a B.A. in American Studies from the University of South Florida.

Her research interests focus on learning and psychosocial development, particularly in adolescence and the college years, and on the psychological aspects of the public understanding of science. This work includes: 1) the development of epistemic cognition (beliefs about knowledge and knowing), research funded by the National Science Foundation; 2) the development of self-regulation and autonomy during the college years, and how this is related to contact with parents through emerging technology; and 3) psychological explanations for science denial, doubt, and resistance. She has also worked on cross-national studies of achievement and the interrelationship of mind and culture, and spent two sabbaticals as a faculty fellow at Doshisha University in Kyoto and two as a visiting faculty fellow at DIS Abroad in Copenhagen. Her research is done in collaboration with undergraduates, who have also been involved in presenting results at conferences and co-authoring papers.

Professor Hofer is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association and on the editorial board of Educational Psychologist, Learning and Instruction, and The Journal of Metacognition and Learning. She is the editor, with Paul Pintrich, of Personal Epistemology: The Psychology of Beliefs about Knowledge and Knowing, and the author, with Abigail Sullivan Moore, of The iConnected Parent: Staying Close to Your Kids in College (and Beyond) While Letting Them Grow Up.

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