Supporting civic education and media literacy is one way to counter #TruthDecay and restore the role of facts in the U.S.

With this in mind, we developed a series of lesson plans to help educators teach their students how to engage with public policy.🧵bit.ly/3wVfLPH The lesson plans—designed by @PradoTuma & Alice Huguet—can help middle school students understand
🔹how public policy relates to their lives
🔹why it's important to learn about policy issues from credible sources
🔹how to be more critical consumers and creators of information.

Russian propaganda has been on full display during the war in #Ukraine. According to RAND experts, Moscow’s “firehose of falsehood” is:

💥High volume & multi-channel
💥Rapid, continuous, & repetitive
💥Lacking commitment to reality To close out our year of #ArtPlusData, artist-in-residence V+J — @juan_delcan & Valentina Izaguirre — employ their famous #MatchstickPeople to illustrate the danger of this propaganda model. bit.ly/39U3XUM

Why can't we agree on the facts?

[thread] The role of facts & analysis in American public life has been declining over the last two decades.

We call this #TruthDecay. It's led to alienation, a lack of civil discourse, political paralysis, and general uncertainty around what's true and what isn't. bit.ly/3M9OkGI

A four-day school week is becoming more common, especially across the western U.S.

Proponents say that it saves money, improves attendance, and helps keep teachers in rural areas. But does it?

Our new study breaks down the benefits & drawbacks. [thread] bit.ly/3iHZuWB RAND researchers analyzed data from five states to find out:

💵 If the 4-day week saves schools money

💯 How it affects student absences and achievement

🍎 How a shorter week impacts teacher recruitment & retainment

👍 Whether parents and students support the approach

Russia and China have targeted Americans with malign and subversive information campaigns during the #COVID19 pandemic.

New RAND research examines these campaigns — and what they might suggest about future activities by Moscow and Beijing. [thread] bit.ly/2SaaMbH The global spread of #COVID19 created fertile ground for attempts to influence and destabilize different populations.

Our report describes information efforts in which Russia- and China-associated outlets appear to have targeted U.S. audiences from January to July 2020.

The Health Related Behaviors Study (HRBS) is the flagship Department of Defense survey for understanding the health and well-being of military service members.

Here are the latest results.⬇️ [thread] bit.ly/3b4Eoy3 The HRBS asks questions about health-related issues that can affect force readiness or the ability to meet the demands of military life.

These findings represent some of the most up-to-date information about the health of U.S. military personnel.

Accurate data are critical to understanding the full cost of gun violence in America. That's why we created a new database of firearm hospitalizations.

We estimate that there were nearly 548,000 such hospitalizations from 2000 to 2016. [thread] bit.ly/3gEEsIl This map shows the number of firearm injuries requiring hospitalization per 100,000 residents, averaged between 2000 and 2016.

Why and how do people join violent extremist organizations? And how do they become deradicalized?

To find out, we conducted interviews with former extremists and their families and friends.

Here are 10 key takeaways... [thread] bit.ly/3wlkCXK The attack on the Capitol and other recent events emphasize the need for more research to inform prevention and deradicalization strategies.

These interviews illustrate how 24 white supremacists and 8 Islamic extremists became radicalized—and how some left these groups.

We're living in an era of #TruthDecay: Americans increasingly disagree about basic facts. This can have dire consequences.

Civic education is key to reversing the course. Our new report identifies ways to spark an American civics revival. [thread] bit.ly/2JYWXc3 Let's start by defining "civics." You might be thinking of lessons from your high school government class. But our research explores a much broader set of skills (e.g., critical thinking, communication) that help students engage in democracy in an active and informed way.

Creative measures are needed to meet the critical care demands of #COVID19.

This quick-turn study and online calculator—our first self-funded research response to the pandemic but not our last—can help health officials plan for patient surges. [thread]

bit.ly/3bQ2iv6 Hospitals can prepare for a surge of patients critically ill with COVID-19, but it will require hospital leaders, practitioners, and regional officials to adopt drastic measures that challenge the standard way of providing care.

Americans are placing less faith in institutions that were once trusted sources of information—including the media.

That's one of the key trends that characterizes #TruthDecay—defined as the diminishing role of facts and analysis in American public life.
bit.ly/2V798qG Tonight, RAND leaders and media experts are gathering at our Santa Monica HQ to discuss the role the media plays in exacerbating #TruthDecay—and the role it can play in fighting the phenomenon.

We'll have live updates on this thread.

One-third of Americans rely on news platforms that they acknowledge are less reliable — mainly social media and peers.

That’s from our new report on how reliability, demographics, and political partisanship factor into Americans’ news choices. bit.ly/2YA5jKE [thread] ☝️This study is the latest release from our research initiative on how to counter #TruthDecay, the diminishing role of facts and analysis in American public life.👇
rand.org/research/proje…

Despite globalization, game-changing technology, and important demographic changes, America's approach to workforce preparation today is more or less the same as it was decades ago.

What might a reimagined system look like? [thread] bit.ly/30b5E9v RAND experts took a systems approach to rethinking the status quo and how it's failing many Americans. They explored how educators, employers, workers, and other stakeholders can rebuild the current system to bring about much-needed transformation.

How has the presentation of news — its style and linguistic characteristics — changed over time and across media platforms?

To find out, we conducted a quantitative analysis of 30 years of news stories. This thread provides an overview. rand.org/pubs/research_… via @jekavanagh Since the late 1980s, U.S.-based journalism has gradually shifted away from objective news and offers more opinion-based content that appeals to emotion and relies heavily on argumentation and advocacy.

Today, we're launching the RAND Gun Policy in America initiative, which provides information on what scientific research can tell us about the effects of gun laws. [thread] r.rand.org/6xbc Our goal is to establish a shared set of facts that will improve public discussions and support the development of fair and effective gun policies.

There is *a lot* to explore in the link above. This thread provides an overview.