Kara S. Fort

Passed Comprehensive Examinations

Wed, 03 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I successfully defended my comprehensive examinations and have become a Ph.D. candidate! A huge thank you to my committee members: Dr. Dominik Stecuła, Dr. Mike Slater, Dr. Hillary Shulman, and Dr. R. Kelly Garrett. I was able to dive deep into questions about political ideology, epistemology, persuasion, and metacognition. I also survived getting COVID-19 for the first time in the middle of writing my second question.

Top Paper in Political Communication at NCA

Mon, 24 Nov 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Excited to share that Rob Bond, Erik Nisbet, R. Kelly Garrett, and I received a Top Paper award from the Political Communication division at NCA! Using an 8-wave panel survey conducted over the course of the 2024 Presidential Election, we found that conservatives were far more likely to defend their misperceptions by disagreeing with experts than either liberals or conservatives, even when controlling for the political slant of the claim and individual’s epistemic beliefs. This work moves misinformation work beyond why people false beliefs to how they defend their beliefs when challenged and holds important implications for the correction of misperceptions.

Top Paper in Social Cognition at NCA

Sun, 24 Nov 2024 00:00:00 +0000

I am happy to share that Team Fluency received a Top Paper award from the Social Cognition division at NCA. Our paper investigated how code-mixing in a narrative can impede processing fluency and narrative engagement, resulting in poorer character attitudes and out-group evaluations. Thank you so much to my co-authors - Rachel, Elizabeth, Jorge, and Hillary - for their support during the presentation!

New Publication

Sat, 28 Sep 2024 00:00:00 +0000

My newest publication, from the minds of Team Fluency, is out now at Communication Research! We found that including foreign language terms (or code-mixing) in a narrative inhibits processing fluency and narrative engagement, resulting in poorer character attitudes and out-group evaluations. This work reveals the importance of measuring processing fluency as a narrative engagement mechanism and highlights the importance of ensuring individuals become more familiar with foreign languages in order to increase their fluency evaluations. You can read the article here.

First Publication

Mon, 16 Sep 2024 00:00:00 +0000

I am excited to share that my first publication is now out! In collaboration with Dr. Hillary Shulman, I investigated how easy or difficult processing experiences can influence subsequent information evaluations. We found that when participants had an easy processing experience, they felt more internally efficacious and were then better able to discern between true or false information. This research offers new insight into how metacognitions, like processing fluency, can impact information evaluation, revealing a potential pathway to fight misperceptions. You can read the article here.

M.A. Graduation

Fri, 06 Aug 2021 00:00:00 +0000

I successfully defended my M.A. thesis, “The Seed-of-Truth Effect: The Role of Premise Veracity in Support for False Conclusions.” Thank you to my advisor, Dr. R. Kelly Garrett, and my committee member, Dr. Jason Coronel, for their support!

About Me

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Hi! My name is Kara Fort and I am a current Ph.D. candidate at The Ohio State University.

Research

My research focuses on understanding how and why individuals find certain types of information or evidence persuasive. I approach this question from three main angles: (1) how message features may spur metacognitive experiences, such as feelings of ease or difficulty, that impact information evaluations, (2) why people hold misperceptions and how they defend their false beliefs, and (3) how beliefs about knowledge, facts, and truth impact how we evaluate and understand information and evidence. My research works to integrate theories of metacognition, information processing, persuasion, and epistemology from diverse fields such as educational psychology, social psychology, mass communication, persuasion, and political communication. Beyond academia, my research also aims to understand important drivers behind declining levels of trust in experts and science and to address these shortcomings through novel means.

Research

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

I am a social scientist interested in how and why people believe or like certain evidence or information. I use various methods including experiments, cross-sectional surveys, and panel surveys in my research. I am also trained in more advanced quantitative methods, such as SEM, social network analysis, and psychometrics. My work has received two top paper panel awards at the National Communication Association Conference (Social Cognition Division in 2025, Political Communication Division in 2025).

Service

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

I recognize the importance of giving time to serve our community and have been active in service endeavors throughout my collegiate career.

Service Roles

Teaching

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

I believe that learning is an iterative process, in which success is only achieved through overcoming numerous challenges and failures. Because of this, I emphasize the importance of fallibility in my classes through the use of low-stakes, scaffolded assignments, activities that require students to learn about and use media literacy, and debate activities that require students to staunchly defend their positions. I also recognize that applying a theoretical lens to an applied and diverse field, such as communication, can be difficult, so I work to provide students opportunities to engage with applied scenarios to work through how theory can inform real-world processes.