Branden Johnson, Ph.D.
Branden Johnson is a Senior Research Scientist at Decision Research. Dr. Johnson pursues basic and applied research in risk perception and risk communication, with additional publications in environmental policy and resource economics. His basic research has covered diverse hazard topics, including trust, uncertainty (including that produced by disputes among scientists), gender and ethnicity, risk comparisons, and information processing, among others. His applied research has been primarily in the environmental field, partly reflecting his quarter-century with the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection before joining DR, mostly as a Research Scientist, but also as a drinking water regulator. In addition to drinking water, he has dealt with such topics as air pollution, black bears, chemical accidents, climate change, hazardous waste, low-level radioactive waste, radon in indoor air, Ebola and Zika, terrorism and wetlands, among others. Before joining NJDEP, Dr. Johnson was a tenured Associate Professor of Science, Technology, and Society at Michigan Technological University, and an Assistant Professor of Geography at University of Pittsburgh, and has held adjunct positions in human ecology and geography at Rutgers University and in public health at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (now part of Rutgers University).
Dr. Johnson has served as Chair of the Risk Communication Specialty Group, and is a Fellow, of the Society for Risk Analysis (among other positions there) and as President of the Risk Assessment and Policy Association, and on National Research Council committees on drinking water contaminants and human biomonitoring. He is on the editorial board of Risk Analysis, and has been a reviewer for multiple journals (from political science, psychology and geography to risk and the environment) and national and international agencies (both basic and applied research).
Dr. Johnson began his career as a qualitative researcher, using such techniques as participant observation, interviews and focus groups, but has done extensive work using surveys, Q analysis, and experiments as well. He has consulted with both industry and government.
Current Research
Estimating the Net Benefits of Environmental, Public Health and Safety Regulations
Assessing the Variance, Effects, and Sources of Aversion to Zika Solutions
Public Interpretations of and Responses to Scientific Disputes
Hazard Manager Stereotypes as Influences on Trust, Confidence and Cooperation
Recent Publications
Johnson, B. B., & Finkel, A. M. (2022). Information effects on lay tradeoffs between national regulatory costs and benefits. Risk Analysis. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1111/risa.13886
Johnson, B. B. (2021). Perceived characteristics of hazard-managing organizations for institutional stereotypes and their effects on trust. Journal of Risk Research, 24(2), 148–166. https://doi.org/10.1080/13669877.2020.1749115
Johnson, B. B., & Dieckmann, N. F. (2021). Lay beliefs about scientists’ relations with their employers. Public Understanding of Science, 30(1) 103–114. https://doi.org/10.1177/0963662520964931
Johnson, B. B., & Mayorga, M. (2021). Americans’ early behavioral responses to COVID-19. Human and Ecological Risk Assessment, 27(7), 1733–1746. https://doi.org/10.1080/10807039.2021.1884842
Johnson, B. B., & Mayorga, M. (2021). Temporal shifts in Americans’ risk perceptions of the Zika outbreak. Human and Ecological Risk Assessment, 27(5), 1242–1257. https://doi.org/10.1080/10807039.2020.1820852
Johnson, B. B., & Swedlow, B. (2021). Cultural theory’s contributions to risk analysis: A thematic review with directions and resources for further research. Risk Analysis, 41(3), 429–455. https://doi.org/10.1111/risa.13299
Turner-Zwinkels, F. M., Johnson, B. B., Sibley, C. G., & Brandt, M. J. (2021). Conservatives’ moral foundations are more densely connected than liberals’ moral foundations. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 47(2), 167–184. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167220916070
Wirz, C. D., Mayorga, M., & Johnson, B. B. (2021). Evaluating the effects of news-following, volume and content of news coverage on Americans’ risk perceptions during the 2014–2016 Ebola outbreak. Journal of Health Communication, 26(5), 328–338. https://doi.org/10.1080/10810730.2021.1927257
Johnson, B. B., & Swedlow, B. (2020). Comparing cultural theory and cultural cognition theory survey measures to each other and as explanations for judged risk. Journal of Risk Research, 23(10), 1278–1300. https://doi.org/10.1080/13669877.2019.1646310
Johnson, B. B., Swedlow, B., & Mayorga, M. W. (2020). Cultural theory and cultural cognition theory survey measures: Confirmatory factoring and predictive validity of factor scores for judged risk. Journal of Risk Research, 23(11), 1467–1490. https://doi.org/10.1080/13669877.2019.1687577
Johnson, B. B. (2020). Probing the role of institutional stereotypes in Americans’ evaluations of hazard-managing institutions. Journal of Risk Research, 23, 313–329. https://doi.org/10.1080/13669877.2019.1569095
Johnson, B. B., & Dieckmann, N. F. (2020). Americans’ views of scientists’ motivations for scientific work. Public Understanding of Science, 29, 2–20. https://doi.org/10.1177/0963662519880319
Johnson, B. B., & Swedlow, B. (2020). Comparing cultural theory and cultural cognition theory survey measures to each other and as explanations for judged risk. Journal of Risk Research, 23(10), 1278–1300. https://doi.org/10.1080/13669877.2019.1646310
Johnson, B. B., Swedlow, B., & Mayorga, M. W. (2020). Cultural theory and cultural cognition theory survey measures: Confirmatory factoring and predictive validity of factor scores for judged risk. Journal of Risk Research, 23(11), 1467–1490. https://doi.org/10.1080/13669877.2019.1687577
Swedlow, B., Ripberger, J. T., Liu, L.-Y., Silva, C. L., Jenkins-Smith, H., & Johnson, B. B. (2020). Construct validity of Cultural Theory survey measures. Social Science Quarterly, 101(6), 2332–2383. https://doi.org/10.1111/ssqu.12859
Wirz, C. D., Mayorga, M., & Johnson, B. B. (2020). A longitudinal analysis of Americans’ media sources, risk perceptions, and judged need for action during the Zika outbreak. Health Communication. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1080/10410236.2020.1773707
Dieckmann, N. F., & Johnson, B. B. (2019). Why do scientists disagree? Explaining and improving measures of the perceived causes of scientific disputes. PLoS ONE, 14(2), e0211269. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0211269
Johnson, B. B. (2019). Americans’ views of voluntary protective actions against Zika infection: Conceptual and measurement issues. Risk Analysis, 39, 2694–2717. https://doi.org/10.1111/risa.13378
Johnson, B. B. (2019). Experiments in lay cues to the relative validity of positions taken by disputing groups of scientists. Risk Analysis, 39, 1657–1674. https://doi.org/ 10.1111/risa.13298
Johnson, B. B. (2019). Hazard avoidance, symbolic and practical: The case of Americans’ reported responses to Ebola. Journal of Risk Research, 22, 346–363. https://doi.org/10.1080/13669877.2017.1378252
Mayorga, M. W., & Johnson, B. B. (2019). A longitudinal study of concern and judged risk: The case of Ebola in the United States, 2014–2015. Journal of Risk Research, 22, 1280–1293. https://doi.org/10.1080/13669877.2018.1466827
