Do Scientists Understand the Public?

Mab_Mass writes "The American Academy of Arts & Sciences has an interesting article on the relationship between scientists and the public. [Here's the paper itself, as a PDF.] Rather than point the finger at an 'ignorant' public, this article chastises the scientists for a poor understanding of how to communicate with non-technical people. With a look at the issues of climate change, nuclear waste disposal, genetics, and the future of the Internet, the article provides examples of how the experts in these fields are failing to present their message in a way that encourages public discussion and support."

Comments

Re:Hmmph.

[n8r0n]

Teaching happens when people are willing to be taught. More or less, school children and college kids are willing to be taught. Adults in the US are not willing to be taught, and any attempt to do so is met with cries of "condescension", "elitism", and other smarty-pants types of accusations.

Scientists and engineers assuming people who don't understand their work are idiots isn't a mistake. You make the mistake of thinking that the lack of public understanding of science is what causes us to think that people are idiots. In reality, it's largely because people are such idiots that they have so little chance of understanding science. In a country where 85% of people believe in a god, I'm afraid there's very little hope for any rational paradigm taking hold.

If you think the majority of non-scientists and engineers in the US are not idiots, then you've got an overly rosy outlook on society.

Re:Wait... They want them to dumb things down...

[Attila Dimedici]

What is so difficult is that they then say, "You know all those government regulations we have been telling you that you needed for your own good all those years but you opposed? Well this means that we were right and you need those regulations to keep from drowning next year when the ice caps melt. Well, no, we didn't know about Global Warming when we told you that you needed these regulations, but we knew you needed them and now that we have discovered the greenhouse effect from CO2 we know why you needed those regulations."