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Getting The Public To Listen To Good Science

Posted by kdawson on from the i'm-your-doctor-dammit dept.

I Don't Believe in Imaginary Property writes "We all know that false or misleading science headlines are all too common these days and that misleading media combined with an apathetic and undereducated public lead to widespread ignorance. But the real question is, how can this trend be reversed? At a session at the recent AAAS meeting, a study was discussed indicating that what matters most is how the information is portrayed. While people are willing to defer to experts on matters of low concern, for things that affect them directly, such as breast cancer or childhood diseases, expertise only counts for as much as giving off a 'sense of honesty and openness,' and that it matters far less than creating a sense of empathy in deciding who people will listen to. In other words, it's not enough to merely report on it as an expert. You need to make sure your report exudes a sense of honesty, openness, empathy, and maybe even a hint of humor."

5 of 419 comments (clear)

  1. Science on TV insteadn of siticoms by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    I am with Bjarne on this one.
    Bjarne Stroustrup, creator of the C++ programming language, claims that C++ is experiencing a revival and
    that there is a backlash against newer programming languages such as Java and C#. "C++ is bigger than ever.
    There are more than three million C++ programmers. Everywhere I look there has been an uprising
    - more and more projects are using C++. A lot of teaching was going to Java, but more are teaching C++ again.
    There has been a backlash.", said Stroustrup.

  2. SLASHDOT SUX0RZ by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    _0_
    \''\
    '=o='
    .|!|
    .| |
         getting the public to look at goatse

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  4. Re:Yeah, but can you 'prove' it? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    So what is the belief system that suits moral atheist agenda?

    Simple, as atheist's selfish agenda is to hate God and deny his revealed truth, no atheist can be moral. Nobody "doesn't belive in god" they know he is real, they just deny him, which is evil and therefore immoral.

    You cannot be moral without God, therefore you cannot be a moral atheist nor a moral atheist agenda

  5. Re:Bull. People want "Truth". by Corporate+Troll · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    And then there's the church youth groups where the kids learn abstinence and practice giving blow jobs.

    They teach how to give blowjobs? Isn't that contradictory to abstinence? Anyway, I wish my wife had been sent to such a youth group. *sigh*