communicating science amidst controversy
TRANSCRIPT
Outline
• Communication pitfalls• Establish our goal• Strategy 1: Understanding your audience• Strategy 2: Get their attention• Strategy 3: Translate science into concrete experience• Strategy 4: Effectively communicate uncertainty• Strategy 5: Tap Into Social Identities and Affiliations• Strategy 6: Encourage Group Participation• Strategy 7: Minimize bias
What is your Communication Goal?
Environment of open-minded, unbiased consideration
There are things science can answer and things that ethics can answer...Temple Grandin
Use frames
• Organize central ideas• Communicate why an issue might be a
problem, who or what might be responsible, and, in some cases, what options exist
• Condense a message
They Don't Care How Much You
Know Until They Know How Much You
Care
Connect to your audience’s values
Human beings don’t like uncertainty.
But science doesn’t deal in certainties.
Scientists: “how well something is known”Public: “not knowing”
Communicating Uncertainty - Strategies
• Scientific consensus
• Term: range of possibilities
• Open communication style
Strategies to Reduce bias
• Provide transparency• Checks and balances on team• Think through the underlying problems, potential
solutions, and consequences• Provide equal weight for differing viewpoints• Avoid emotional overtones• Pilot-test & allow public input• Continued learning