64 Science Communication Volume 28 Number 1 September 2006 64-92 © 2006 Sage Publications 10.1177/1075547006291346 http://scx.sagepub.com hosted at http://online.sagepub.com Authors’ Note: Ginger Gibson’s earlier qualitative research on indicator reactions, conducted with the authors, was critical to development of this study. Anne Ingegno was instrumental in overseeing survey implementation. This research was funded by the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP), Division of Science, Research and Technology, under Contract SR97-080. The views expressed here do not necessarily represent the views of NJDEP. Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Branden B. Johnson, New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, Division of Science, Research and Technology, P.O. Box 409, 401 East State Street,Trenton, NJ 08625-0409; phone: (609) 633- 2324; fax: (609) 777-2852; e-mail: branden.johnson@dep.state.nj.us. Evaluating Public Responses to Environmental Trend Indicators Branden B. Johnson New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection Caron Chess Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey Indicators of trends in environmental conditions have been touted as ways to inform the public and provide a “report card” on environmental agency per- formance, but no quantitative analysis of such claims has been done. A small study of New Jersey residents’ reactions to indicators as presented by the state environmental agency found that these indicators were deemed under- standable, credible, and useful. However, actual comprehension was not related to perceived understanding, and many in this well-educated sample exhibited the ecological fallacy of inferring local environmental conditions or priority-setting uses that these indicators could not possibly provide. Prior beliefs about statewide trends in environmental quality, accuracy in extract- ing information from the indicator presentations, and demographic variables had varying but significant effects on reactions to and interpretations of the indicators. These findings have implications for preparation and evaluation of institutional communications about science in general. Keywords: environmental indicators; environmental communication