Words Of Science, Science of Words

Why and how to facilitate communication between science and society.

GRID Open Day Faculty of Engineering University of Catania May 9, 2008

Science Defined

“A body of knowledge, strictly controlled and systematically ordered, that allows you to reach objective truth around a given order of phenomena or concepts.”

pure: done for itself

applied: which has as its object the practical application of scientific discoveries

experimental or positive:based on knowledge

Understanding, knowledge

Neutral, objective, it has a METHOD based on conceptual, precise instruments:

Assumptions, Theory, Experiment, Observation, Inference, Model, System, Formalisation…

The Academic Science

What Does Communicate Mean?

There are several theories each addressing some distinctive features of communication.

"A process of exchanging information and mutual influence which

takes place in a given context between two or more individuals "

People

Information

Context

Exchange

Building Blocks Of Communication

Communication is effective only if the sender and the recipient give the message the same meaning

The Communication Process

Sender Feedback

Recipient

Medium

Message

Dr. Illiterate In Italy, where graduates who do not know how to write Graduates illiterate: 1 in 5 do not know how to write. De Mauro: " 'social emergency"

One graduate in five has serious difficulties to use the written word. The phenomenon of ' "Illetteratism" affects as many as 20% of Italian graduates. We are talking about doctors with five, six years of university behind them, but who have problems even to understand the phrase that they have just read. This has emerged from the report by the Italian branch of the International All-OECD (Adult Literacy and Life Skill) coordinated by Prof, Victoria Gallina in 2006.

Here at times, an occasional black hole occurs, as happened one month ago, at the the final examination to access the judiciary in Rome.

Some 4,000 candidates competed for the 380 seats. Despite this, 58 posts remained vacant: 3,700 (may be more) candidates, all of course graduates, have presented inadmissible evidence on purely linguistic basis. "For modesty I’ll not re-tell the inexpressible citations," commented one of the Commissioners, the judge in the Court of Appeal Matteo Frasca.

From „Repubblica“, February 6, 2008

"Istat: Half of Italians is stucked at junior high school graduation" National spending on education is at 4.4% of GDP against an EU average of 5.1%. For cultural consumption is at 6.9% against the average EU-27 of 9.5%

Rome: Almost the majority of Italians have a junior high school diploma. So states Istat, in its first report „One Hundred Statistics for the Country“ In 2007 48.2% of the population aged between 25 and 64 years had achieved as higher diploma only the one they were obliged by State.

In the European context, Italy in 2006 presents a value of 48.7%, which places our country at the bottom of the ranking along with Spain, Portugal and Malta.

From „Repubblica“, May 8, 2008

The Axioms of Communication

Behaviour does not have an opposite.

Everyone always has a behaviour.

Each behaviour transmits a message, so it communicates.

Even silence or expressionlessness communicates something.

“One cannot non-communicate“(Paul Watzlawick) ‏

Perception

Perception is the process through which we take awarenessabout the plurality of sensory stimuli we receive.

It filters incoming messages or stimuli, then assigns them significance and finally converts them into awareness.

When receiving messages we use all five senses.

Impressions and messages are assimilated in our brain together with other information.

Messages are associated with past experience already stored earlier.

The new information is stored together with existing information.

Barriers

Restricted capacity to receivedistractions (Disturbances),‏schemes’ incompatibility, ‏subconscious mechanisms,different attribution of meaning,source’s role / authority

Barriers and Conditionings

Conditionings Environmental situation (time and place)‏Information’s content Psychological conditionsSocial factors

The Relationship

A series of communications may be considered an uninterrupted chain of exchanged messages.

We can determine a starting point anywhere in the sequence.

Based on the assumption that communication is circular, we arbitrarily establish a starting point.

Content and Relationship

The nature of the relationship determines the contents

What kind of response do they generate?

We all receive tens of thousands sensory impressions per second. Therefore we use a selection process that brings our attention to one single stimulus at a time.

Deciding what is essential or irrelevant is a personal choice. It varies from person to person and depends on our cultural and emotional back-ground.

Subjective Elements

The lowest common denominator...perhaps

The word is the smallest element of communication.

Ferdinand de Saussure (XX century)

“Linguistic sign": the combination of

sign (the part perceived by the senses)

and the

meaning (the concept which is invoked)‏

Words are made...

Words are made, before being said, in order to be understood: “this is the reason why”, said a philosopher,“God gave us one tongue and two ears”.

Who doesn't make his words understandable violates the freedom of speech of his listeners.

He is ill-mannered, if he only speaks in private and privately

He is something worse if he is a journalist, a teacher, a civil servant, elected by the people.

Whoever attends upon the public has the constitutional duty to be understandable. "

Tullio De Mauro

The primary task of a communicator is to encourage the exchange between people / different communities to

achieve relations based on:

knowledgeacknowledgement

in order to create a feel of

trustapprovalconsent

Who is the Communicator of Science?

Why Communicating Science?

Relevant decisions are taken in partnership by science experts and groups of non-experts.

Scientists have to communicate with social players who stay out of science’s world.

Science, individually and collectively, penetrates people’s daily life.

Many scientific questions are rising to the top of the cultural, social, economic and political agenda.

A good communication of science is a growing social instance.

Society needs scientific information in order to govern its democratic life.

Double necessity:

In order to take all relevant decisions about their work, scientists have to communicate with non-experts.

In order to govern itself, society needs to be informed on the technological and scientific dynamics.

Why Communicating Science?

Why Science needs good communication?

The current world is the result of technological and scientific development.

As a result there is a co-responsibility of scientific and technological circles in managing and troubleshooting problems of the planet:

a specialised problem, which can be resolved only by those who have specialist skills.

Why Should People be interested in Science?

“You’re not created to live as brutes, but to succeed by virtue and knowledge.” (Dante Alighieri)

Human beings need to know.

Especially they need to know about the issues that concern them closely:

“mad cow” disease, AIDS, SARS, environmental pollution etc.

Nobody is happy being left out with incomprehensible effects and phenomena and feeling inadequate when having to

explain them.

The need for knowledge is directly proportional to the degree of perceived threat.

The emotions represent a response behaviour at three different levels:

psychological behavioural

physiological

Emotion can be defined as the sequence of events included between the appearance of the stimulus trigger

(INPUT) and the behavioural reaction (OUTPUT).

The primary emotions are the result of biological evolution:

joy, approval, surprise, fear, sorrow, disgust, expectation, anger.

The Emotions

Fear is the evolutionary response to a stimulus perceived and classified as a threat.

Some psychiatrists argue that it’s the origin of rational thinking.

And it is certainly necessary for the preservation of life and, therefore, the species.

Fear

How can I avoid beingeaten by sharks?

Anxiety

Anxiety is a state characterised by a feeling of fear not connected to any specific stimulus.

It is distinguished from genuine fear by being unspecific, vague or derived from an inner conflict.

It triggers the independentnervous system to “overwork” and to react in an “fight or flee” course of action.

Study ESEMeD (European Study of the Epidemiology of Mental Disorders),

in six European countries

In Italy11% suffer from emotional disorder (depression)

and 11% suffer from anxiety disorder.

European average: 14% suffer from depression

and 16% suffer from anxiety disorders

United States: The National Institutes of Health says that during one year

20% suffer from mental disorder. More than 30% of American students

declare that they suffer from anxiety and depression. The study shows the only diagnosed cases.

A conservative estimate quantifies the real proportions of the phenomenon to be at least double.

Some Statistics on how Widespread this Phenomena is

Since ‘70s, numerous psychological studies have been developed about perception.

Their goal was to identify mental strategies and heuristic values which people use to orientate themselves in an uncertain world.

These approaches can suggest a distorted perspective.

In particular, psychologists observed a frequent feeling of immunity and security in those who were used to a particular situation, e.g. engineers or those who believed they could control the factors which could lead to a disaster.

The Perception of Risk

The Perception of Risk

One important variance in the degree of alarm is the difference between:

risks of natural origin and others caused by man,

as well as the difference between

risks voluntarily undertaken and risks imposed by others,

and finally between known risks and hidden risks.

Emerging Concepts

Risk

Danger / Hazard

Uncertainty

Safety

Benefit

Exposure

The Perception of Risk

The great paradox for science today is being the hegemonic culture of fact – because it can change thoroughly and quickly the way we live, work and think – and yet being the least spread and shared.

International surveys are almost unanimous in criticising the lack of scientific culture even in advanced countries.

G. Carrada

The Perception of Risk

The overall goal of effective communication activities of science is to (re)-build a climate of mutual

understanding and trust between science and society, setting a spread and genuine dialogue.

The Priorities

From technical abilityto relationship’s competence.

The new need to communicate with people will measure the success of science.

Knowledge and know-howare not enough.

Today, it’s also necessary to understand:how to listenhow to explainhow to talkhow to communicate.

The Priorities

From accuracy to effectiveness

The main problem in communicating science is that of language. The concepts expressed in scientific language, must find a mirror in ordinary language, where terms have more different means.

Scientists are often reluctant to "simplify" ... but "simplifying" is not "trivialising"

The Priorities

From Spreading to Communicating

The communication of science must be made "by science."

Anyone else has the role of an interpreter, and has to be competent, rigorous and precise, to avoid the loosing of partial (or even full) scientific content or mean.

From “one way” information to “two way communication”

The Priorities

From indirect contact to direct contact.

Look for, invent, pursue all the possible opportunities for direct contact between scientists and society

to incline people towards science out of the institutional headquarters.

Take chargeto keep downmedia sensationalism.

The Priorities

From mass media to new media The Web 2.0 “revolution”

The communication ways are changed and are consider most authoritative: Social Networking Forum Community Blog

Peer to peer communication "viral" widespread new "transversal" segments

The Priorities

From public opinion to tribes.

We can no longer think in terms undifferentiated "public opinion" The Web 2.0 revolution has redefined interest groups,

that amass spontaneously, share information and considerthemselves authoritative.

stakeholders / influencerscommunity tribes partners

The Priorities

The social advantages of effective scientific communication are considerable:

recipients gain awareness of their world

and are involved in scientific development choices.

Therefore they have democratic access to scientific knowledge:

participate in the choices,

be responsible for decisions.

Concluding...

Thank-you for your attention

Anna Maria Carbone

amcarbone@scriverebene.it

www.scriverebene.blogspot.com

www.scriverebene.it