How to communicate science during a crisis
[Music]
science has a communication problem
it always has but while we could mostly
brush it under the rug in the past
we are currently faced with big global
problems
that need action immediately one of
course
is covid19 i’m a science communicator
my job is to translate scientific
information
into something understandable and
accessible but
even i was overwhelmed by the absolute
fire hose of information
coming from every direction so i want to
talk about three things
why our science communication doesn’t
always match up with our science
education how misinformation uses
stories and our emotions
to spread a narrative and how we can use
the tactics of misinformation
to spread science stories instead first
our science education when we learn
about science in school
we learn about it as a series of facts
dna has four nucleotide bases
plants turn co2 into o2 through
photosynthesis
and pluto is a planet or
is it many of us learned that pluto was
a planet in school
but then in 2006 the international
astronomical union
downgraded pluto to a dwarf planet there
was
of course an uproar as many of us had
loved
the cold small planet but as scientists
learned more about our solar system and
the many objects in it
they changed definitions and statuses to
be more reflective of the new
knowledge that they had and in doing
this
to be as up-to-date as possible they had
to demote pluto
but this is exactly how science works
and how science
should work as we gain more information
about our world
we update our definitions and knowledge
and guidance
science isn’t just a static study of the
world
but rather a process of asking questions
learning new things and then asking more
questions
and this can be a messy process
experiments fail
questions lead to answers you never
expected groups disagree on methods and
how to best run experiments
and all of this is good it means that
science is always evolving and moving
and
adapting but it can take time to look at
all of the results
sort through all of the pieces and draw
a clear conclusion
and usually scientists communicate these
updates at the end of the process
after the studies have been done and the
data has been hashed out at conferences
papers have been reviewed and time has
passed
typically when i’m looking for a recent
paper on a topic i’m looking for
something that’s been published in the
past
five years but in the middle of a global
pandemic scientists have had to
communicate their findings
in real time messy data and all when i
look for an up-to-date paper to cite
these days
i am absolutely looking for something
from this year
or even better this month at the very
beginning of the pandemic
not much was known about the science of
covid19
yet people understandably wanted answers
and they wanted them quickly
so rather than having years to do
careful slow
studies on a newly emerging pathogen and
then
look at all of the results together to
form a full picture of the virus
data trickled out to the public as soon
as it was collected
often this was through pre-prints
scientific manuscripts that have not yet
been reviewed by scientific peers
while these are important parts of the
publishing process they can be
incomplete or missing evidence that
other scientists would deem necessary to
draw a conclusion
if each new study and new piece of data
around covet 19 was a puzzle piece
it was as if the public was getting
information piece by piece
as if someone was randomly plucking them
from a box
rather than seeing the final assembled
puzzle all at once
and so sometimes conclusions seemed to
change
as we learned more about how the virus
spread and that airborne transmission
was far more important than surface
transmission
advice from places like the who and the
cdc
changed from focusing on hand washing to
mask wearing
but this wasn’t because scientists were
wrong about covid at first
it’s because as they learned more they
updated their recommendations
and scientists like to be careful about
what they say
as we’re collecting data we use words
like likely
or possibly or may this is because as
we’re still learning
we want to make sure we’re not
overstating assumptions or drawing
wrong conclusions but again the public
is used to hearing
definitive headlines like researchers
find
coffee protects against alzheimer’s or
scientists find
coffee increases risk of alzheimer’s
these are statements
that are communicated like final answers
even if they’re clearly not the whole
picture
and i experienced this disconnect
between how scientists talk
and how science is typically presented
to the public first hand this year
as i searched for information about the
virus and about vaccines
i shared what i found publicly with the
world through social media
and like a scientist i used words like
likely that showed that the evidence was
still evolving
but i got comments with sentiments like
when i learned science in school
it had answers or you must not know what
you’re talking about if you’re just
saying might
is it or isn’t it what is seen by
scientists
as a responsible way to communicate is
seen by the public
as a lack of confidence or information
and at the same time
that scientists were carefully trying to
talk about uncertain data
a gigantic wave of misinformation arose
ready to provide
broad statements and misinformation that
sounded like answers
and pulled on heartstrings because there
wasn’t one
clear source of information during the
pandemic charlatans and fake medical
experts popped up everywhere with their
own theories and speculations
sometimes looking for notoriety and
other times looking to sell a product
misinformation is insidious because it
is so
often based on strong emotions like fear
and anger
rumors swirled that coven 19 wasn’t real
that it was just a way for the
government to take away your rights
instagram posts spread fear-filled lies
that the vaccines were going to affect
fertility
and while none of this was true it was
effective and it spread faster than the
careful
muted language that scientists were
using a 2018 study
found that fake news traveled farther
and faster than true news stories
on twitter and that false stories
inspired fear
disgust and surprise in replies while
true stories inspired anticipation
sadness joy and trust people are also
much more likely to share stories that
align with beliefs they
already hold this is confirmation bias
we assign more weight to evidence and
information that agrees with something
that we already believe
than evidence that refutes it and while
this has been backed up by scientific
data
it’s also something you can capture
yourself doing too i know that i am much
faster to retweet a news article based
on a headline i agree with
than stopping reading a headline i don’t
agree with and
investigating the source and so many of
us are prone to doing this
the twitter even has a new pop-up now
asking if you’d like to actually read
the article
before you retweet it but what can we
learn from that misinformation
i think what we need as scientists and
communicators to take away from this
is that emotions stories and narratives
are compelling
and that we can reach lots of people
when we use them and science has lots of
good stories to tell
but as scientists we’re often taught to
tell them dispassionately
and to lay out only the facts but i
think there’s a middle ground
i think we can structure those facts and
tell those stories in a way that can
empower people to feel supported by
science
rather than scared of it dr catherine
hey ho an amazing scientist and
communicator
also recommends meeting people where
they already are in tailoring messages
to beliefs that they already hold
this does not mean lying it means
finding
common ground and shared values and
using that as a starting point for a
conversation
and covid19 isn’t the only thing we have
to do this with
climate change is just as pressing of an
issue and we need to learn to tell
better
more compelling stories about it for
years
scientists have presented data about how
dire it is
numbers about how many species we’re
losing or the rate at which waters will
rise
but that data needs to be centered
around human
narratives and around stories of people
it needs
to focus on the effects that climate
change will have not on the planet
but on us so what can we learn from over
a year of communicating during a massive
emergency
first i think we need to be more
transparent about the process of science
about what we know and what we’re still
learning
second we need to take a page out of
misinformation’s book
and learn how to use stories to deliver
facts and information
and finally i think we need to be better
as scientists
about engaging with the public through
both of those things from the moment a
hypothesis is thought up to the final
conclusion
and what i would ask of everyone
watching scientist or not
is to keep an eye out for misinformation
whenever you share something
especially in high stress times when
information is moving
quickly remember that misinformation is
trying to use your emotions to get you
to click
like or share watch out for your own
confirmation bias
analyze where information is coming from
what real data it is presented
and whether or not the person sharing it
could have another motive
because the more that we can recognize
information versus misinformation
the faster we can start to tackle the
biggest problems facing us
right now
you