Citizen science with particulate matter sensors at home increases awareness of pollution exposures and can inform health-protective actions, yet little research explores the emotional dimensions of sensing, especially across economic divides. This study shows that participatory air quality sensing is not emotionally neutral. We included 26 parents of asthmatic children in 10 weeks of participatory sensing with indoor and outdoor sensors to understand their exposure experiences. Drawing from weekly surveys and postproject interviews, we found that sensors often generated positive emotions (e.g., empowered, happy) across income levels, underscoring their potential as inclusive tools for asthma management. Parents less often reported negative emotions (e.g., stress, worry); when they did, those were spurred from checking outdoor readings (versus indoor) because outdoor exposures were less controllable. Parents managed emotions by creating contingent boundaries between indoor and outdoor spaces. We recommend expanding access to sensors and air purifiers to promote individual-level environmental health benefits.
Public trust in science and scientific authorities is pivotal to effective vaccine policy and public health. This article develops a cultural-cognitive model to explain how ideological identity structures trust in vaccine-related authorities. Drawing on a novel survey instrument, it examines how partisanship shapes perceptions of scientific authority and the legitimacy of science in public health. Findings reveal that conservatives consistently express lower trust in scientific authorities regarding vaccination while expressing greater trust in religious and political figures. These partisan effects are magnified among scientifically literate individuals, suggesting that vaccine skepticism is structured less by knowledge deficits than by political identity. This underscores how public health attitudes are anchored in social institutions-particularly trust in experts and the perceived role of science in policymaking-clarifying the institutional foundations of vaccine polarization.

