How Do Researchers Find Out How People Filter Science Info?

October 23, 2008

Two days ago, I posted a blog about Dietram Schuefele's study that we may wasting our time trying to educate the public about scientific issues without first trying understand how people will filter the information. That's all well and good, but I wondered how researchers could, in Schuefele's words develop "a better understanding of how different groups will filter or reinterpret this information when it reaches them, given their personal value systems and beliefs"?

I posed the question to Schuefele and here's what he said:

• Science needs to stop looking at research as separate from its societal impacts. For emerging technologies like nano and stem cell research, the boundaries between science, politics, and ethics are
increasingly blurry, and many of the questions raised over human enhancement or virtually invisible surveillance devices have more to do with ethics than with understanding the science behind them. And the reluctance on the part of many scientists to address these questions stifles any dialogue with the
public.

• Our research shows that information is not everything. In fact, the same piece of information may mean very different things to different people, depending on their value systems or beliefs. The assumption that we can simply put the facts out there and expect the public to "get it" eventually is naïve.  rather, we need to understand what people's concerns and hopes are, which cultural and social factors shape these hopes and concerns, and how we can use this knowledge to communicate with the public in a way that (a) reaches as many different groups as possible, and (b) addresses their concerns and questions in a way that makes sense to them.

Photo: Betsie Van der Meer

Comments

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