Matthew Motta, PhD
Assistant Professor
Boston University School of Public Health
Health Law, Policy & Management

PhD, University of Minnesota
BA, Wesleyan University

Pronouns: he/him/his



Welcome! I am an Assistant Professor of Health Law, Policy, & Management at Boston University's School of Public Health.

Previously, I was Assistant Professor of Political Science (American Politics, Research Methods) at Oklahoma State University in Stillwater, OK. Before that, I was a Science of Science Communication postdoctoral fellow at the Annenberg Public Policy Center (University of Pennsylvania). I was also based at the Yale Law School, where I was an affiliated postdoctoral scholar at the Cultural Cognition Project. I received my PhD in Political Science from the University of Minnesota, where I was also a National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellow and Doctoral Dissertation Fellow.

My research focuses on a wide range of topics related to American politics, public opinion, science communication, and both health and environmental policy. I am especially interested in identifying the social and political determinants of anti-science attitudes, and investigating their health policy impact. I am also broadly interested in designing communication strategies that promote effective engagement between the public and the scientific community on politically contentious issues. My forthcoming book Anti-Scientific Americans (Oxford University Press, 2024) explores the prevalence, origins, and consequences of anti-intellectualism in the United States, and is currently available for pre-order on Amazon.

My research has been published in academic journals across the social and medical sciences (e.g., American Journal of Public Health, Social Science & Medicine, Vaccine, Nature Climate Change, Scientific Reports), and featured in popular press outlets like The New York Times, The Washington Post, Scientific American, PBS Newshour, and the CBS Evening News.

As part of my research activities, I also conduct public health opinion research as a Research Fellow at the Policy Lab at Brown University, and piloting health communication campaign strategies as Affiliated Faculty with Harvard's TH Chan School of Public Health.

I am a political analyst for Spectrum News, and regularly comment on both my research and current events for print and television outlets. I am available for commentary on both local and national politics (including, but not limited to, discussions health politics and policy).


Assessing the Effectiveness of Common Health Messaging Tactics on Self-Reported and Validated Vaccine Uptake: A Multi-Method Approach.
09/01/2023 - 08/31/2025 (Multi-PI)
PI: Matthew Motta, PhD
National Science Foundation
SES-2318512



Title


Yr Title Project-Sub Proj Pubs

Publications listed below are automatically derived from MEDLINE/PubMed and other sources, which might result in incorrect or missing publications. Faculty can login to make corrections and additions.

iCite Analysis       Copy PMIDs To Clipboard

  1. Callaghan T, Ferdinand AO, Motta M, Lockman A, Shrestha A, Trujillo KL. Public Attitudes, Inequities, and Polarization in the Launch of the 988 Lifeline. J Health Polit Policy Law. 2024 Jun 01; 49(3):473-493.View Related Profiles. PMID: 37987198
     
  2. Pacheco J, Gollust SE, Callaghan T, Motta M. A Call for Measuring Partisanship in US Public Health Research. Am J Public Health. 2024 Aug; 114(8):772-776.View Related Profiles. PMID: 38754062
     
  3. Heinrich T, Kobayashi Y, Motta M. Which foreign vaccine should the government purchase in a pandemic? Evidence from a survey experiment in the United States. Soc Sci Med. 2024 Apr; 347:116766. PMID: 38502981
     
  4. Motta M, Liu Y, Yarnell A. "Influencing the influencers:" a field experimental approach to promoting effective mental health communication on TikTok. Sci Rep. 2024 Mar 11; 14(1):5864. PMID: 38467750; PMCID: PMC10928193; DOI: 10.1038/s41598-024-56578-1;
     
  5. Motta M, Callaghan T, Lunz Trujillo K. "The CDC Won't Let Me Be": The Opinion Dynamics of Support for CDC Regulatory Authority. J Health Polit Policy Law. 2023 Dec 01; 48(6):829-857.View Related Profiles. PMID: 37497881
     
  6. Motta M, Hwang J, Stecula D. What Goes Down Must Come Up? Pandemic- Related Misinformation Search Behavior During an Unplanned Facebook Outage. Health Commun. 2023 Sep 06; 1-12. PMID: 37674255
     
  7. Motta M, Motta G, Stecula D. Sick as a dog? The prevalence, politicization, and health policy consequences of canine vaccine hesitancy (CVH). Vaccine. 2023 Sep 22; 41(41):5946-5950. PMID: 37640567
     
  8. Goidel K, Callaghan T, Washburn DJ, Nuzhath T, Scobee J, Spiegelman A, Motta M. Physician Trust in the News Media and Attitudes toward COVID-19. J Health Polit Policy Law. 2023 Jun 01; 48(3):317-350.View Related Profiles. PMID: 36441631; DOI: 10.1215/03616878-10358696;
     
  9. Motta M, Benegal S. How pandemic-related changes in global attitudes toward the scientific community shape "post-pandemic" environmental opinion. Public Underst Sci. 2023 Oct; 32(7):907-925. PMID: 37204071; PMCID: PMC10200811; DOI: 10.1177/09636625231167735;
     
  10. Motta M. The pre-political origins and policy consequences of environmental justice concern. Politics Life Sci. 2023 Mar; 41(2):182-199. PMID: 36880544
     
Showing 10 of 67 results. Show More

This graph shows the total number of publications by year, by first, middle/unknown, or last author.

Bar chart showing 67 publications over 9 distinct years, with a maximum of 14 publications in 2020

YearPublications
20163
20173
20184
20196
202014
202111
202212
202310
20244


Recent (within 3 months)

The challenges of navigating an unrelenting news cycle

CBS News 7/17/2024

Raw milk sales are up despite bird flu outbreak in dairy cows

Fast Company 5/14/2024

There's bird flu in US dairy cows. Raw milk drinkers aren't deterred

Associated Press 5/14/2024

Bird flu and health warnings won’t stop raw milk drinkers getting their fix

The Independent 5/14/2024

Raw milk sales rise despite bird flu warnings

NBC 5/14/2024

Raw milk sales spike despite CDC’s warnings of risk associated with bird flu

PBS 5/14/2024

US TikTok ban: how the looming restriction is affecting scientists on the app

Nature 5/9/2024

Older

Policymakers Are Entitled to Their Own Opinions. But Should They Be Entitled to Their Own Science?

BU Today 4/12/2024

Congress is using more science, but the two parties rarely cite the same studies

Science Magazine 3/11/2024

‘Rabies is nearly fatal’: Many local dog owners hesitant about mandatory vaccine, study finds

Boston 25 News 11/21/2023

Vaccine hesitancy affects dog-owners, too, with many questioning the rabies shot

NPR 10/11/2023

Vocal anti-vax movement spreading to dog owners

CBS News 9/27/2023

Vaccine Misinformation Spilling Over To Pets Puts Us All At Risk

Forbes 9/26/2023

Majority of US Dog Owners Hesitant About Canine Vaccines, Study Finds

US News & World Report 9/12/2023

Majority of US dog owners hesitant about canine vaccines, study finds

Reuters 9/12/2023

Anti-Vax Trend May Harm Pet Dogs, With Half of Owners Against Immunization

US News & World Report 9/7/2023

Nearly half of dog owners are hesitant to vaccinate their pups

Futurity 9/1/2023

Woof! Anti-vaxxer pet owners nix rabies shots over doggie ‘autism’ fears: study

New York Post 8/30/2023

More than half of dog owners are suspicious of rabies and other vaccines, new study finds

USA Today 8/30/2023

Anti-vaxxers extend their fears to Fido

The Boston Globe 8/28/2023

How the Mixed Messaging of Vaccine Skeptics Sows Seeds of Doubt

WFMZ 6/8/2023

CDC didn’t say it gave out deadly COVID-19 shots in red states

Associated Press 4/20/2023

Fox News Coverage Sowed Vaccine Hesitancy, Study Says

Bloomberg 3/10/2023

Is partisan conflict over COVID-19 vaccination eroding support for childhood vaccine mandates? (

Nature 2/2/2023

What Issues Will Decide the 2022 Midterm Elections?

BU Today 11/1/2022

Money Doesn't Motivate Vaccine Holdouts

Bloomberg 10/11/2022

2024 BUSPH Dept. of HLPM: DO Award
2024 BUSPH: Research Innovation Award
2023 BUSPH Dept. of HLPM: TEACH Award
2022 General Social Survey 2022 Module Competition: Winner
2021 APSA: Health Politics & Policy: Leonard S. Robins Award (Best Paper)
2021 Vox's The Weeds: Paper of The Week
2021 Module Competition: Most All-Time Reads, Conversation US Author
2020 American Political Science Association: Early Career Scholar Feature
2020 Oklahama State Universe: “Research at a Glance" newsletter feature
2019 Publons: Top Reviewer Award
2019 Oklahoma State University College of Arts and Scientists: "Faculty Scholar Spotlight" feature
2019 United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR): "“PreventionWeb" feature
2018 Elsevier: Atlas Award
In addition to these self-described keywords below, a list of MeSH based concepts is available here.

Health Policy
Misinformation
Health Communication
Public Opinion
Survey Methods
Experimental Design
Public Policy
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715 Albany St
Boston MA 02118
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