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A study finds that early drug use strongly predicts substance abuse only if it’s followed by continuing drug use. Early experimentation with alcohol or marijuana isn't necessarily a risk factor for addiction.

A new study of cigarette warning labels finds that “emotional” images proposed by the government to complement text warnings are more believable and provide greater motivation to quit smoking than equally emotional but irrelevant images or text warnings alone.

Science curiosity appears to counteract people’s tendency to seek out only information that supports their political biases, according to a new study finding that people who are science-curious are more willing to grapple with surprising information.

The public’s ability to understand the dangers posed by Zika virus may be jeopardized by advocacy groups linking the virus with culturally charged issues such as illegal immigration and global warming, the authors of a new study warn.

FactCheck.org, the nonpartisan consumer advocate for voters, is among several fact-checking organizations that will work with Facebook in helping to identify and label viral fake news stories flagged by readers.

Nearly half of the news stories over last year’s holiday season that linked the holidays and suicide perpetuated the myth that there's an increase in suicide from Thanksgiving through January, according to a new analysis.

Even liberals and moderates who are more likely than conservatives to be suspicious of Fox News can be influenced by a misleading article on FoxNews.com about Arctic sea ice trends, researchers found.

How do science communicators most effectively present research to multiple audiences interested in different aspects of it? Such questions provided the framework of the 2016 Annenberg Lecture delivered by Marcia McNutt, president of the National Academy of Sciences.

In 2014, 35,000 walruses crowded ashore on an Alaskan beach instead of resting on ice floes. In a newly published case study, researchers studied TV news coverage of the walrus "haul-out" and people's selective exposure to it.