Lawmakers' use of scientific evidence can be improved.

Crowley, D Max; Scott, J Taylor; Long, Elizabeth C; Green, Lawrie; Israel, Azaliah; Supplee, Lauren; Jordan, Elizabeth; Oliver, Kathryn; Guillot-Wright, Shannon; Gay, Brittany; +11 more... Storace, Rachel; Torres-Mackie, Naomi; Murphy, Yolanda; Donnay, Sandra; Reardanz, Jenna; Smith, Rebecca; McGuire, Kristina; Baker, Elizabeth; Antonopoulos, Ana; McCauley, Mary; Giray, Cagla; (2021) Lawmakers' use of scientific evidence can be improved. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of USA, 118 (9). e2012955118-e2012955118. ISSN 0027-8424 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2012955118

Abstract

Core to the goal of scientific exploration is the opportunity to guide future decision-making. Yet, elected officials often miss opportunities to use science in their policymaking. This work reports on an experiment with the US Congress-evaluating the effects of a randomized, dual-population (i.e., researchers and congressional offices) outreach model for supporting legislative use of research evidence regarding child and family policy issues. In this experiment, we found that congressional offices randomized to the intervention reported greater value of research for understanding issues than the control group following implementation. More research use was also observed in legislation introduced by the intervention group. Further, we found that researchers randomized to the intervention advanced their own policy knowledge and engagement as well as reported benefits for their research following implementation.

Additional Information

Item Type	Article
Faculty and Department	Faculty of Public Health and Policy > Dept of Health Services Research and Policy
PubMed ID	33593938
Elements ID	155466