Communicating science to the unscientific public

One of the bigger issues with communicating science to the general public is how educators continue to overestimate the hoi polloi’s grasp of scientific vernacular; ie. they ignore or forget the fact that laypeople hear one thing but understand another, simply because the scientific meaning to those terms is foreign or unknown to them. We see it all the time, with perhaps the most notorious example being those who claim that “Evolution is just a theory!” (as if that were a dismissal of anything other than their own credibility on the matter).

To demonstrate just how prevalent this problem is, here’s a useful, if somewhat discomforting, chart:

From Physics Today (October 2011), ‘Communicating the Science of Climate Change’ by Richard C.J. Somerville and Susan Joy Hassol

My transcript: (click the [+/-] to expand/collapse →)

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Terms that have a different meanings for scientists and the public
Scientific term	Public meaning	Better choice
enhance	improve	intensify, increase
aerosol	spray can	tiny atmospheric particle
positive trend	good trend	upward trend
positive feedback	good response, praise	vicious cycle, self-reinforcing cycle
theory	hunch, speculation	scientific understanding
uncertainty	ignorance	range
error	mistake, wrong, incorrect	difference from exact true number
bias	distortion, political motive	offset from an observation
sign	indication, astrological sign	plus or minus sign
values	ethics, monetary value	numbers, quantity
manipulation	illicit tampering	scientific data processing
scheme	devious plot	systematic plan
anomaly	abnormal occurrence	change from long-term average

Phil Plait has more. It’s really crucial for the experts to understand that most people don’t share their expertise and simply won’t understand what they mean to say unless they speak a language that John and Jane Doe can actually understand, even if this means simplification to the extreme at times. That’s the price of communication.

Tags: scientists • scientific terms