How strategic and evidence-based are your science communication choices?

Science communication can help scientists ethically achieve priority goals. In practice, however, most communication efforts lack clear, audience-specific behavioral goals and focus on a limited range of potential communication objectives such as awe, excitement, risk perceptions, and science ‘facts.’ This talk will focus on what physicists need to do to think more strategically about their communication choices and the value of taking evidence-based approaches to both sharing and gathering insights.

The purpose of science communication is not [just] to 'communicate science' or engage in societal dialogue. It is to communicate in the context of science to achieve meaningful goals. Scientists need to pursue their audience-specific behavioral goals respectfully and reflexively but it is these goals that enable both strategic planning and substantive discussions of effectiveness.

The speaker is the author of more than 125 peer-reviewed journal articles on science communication and public opinion about science with a focus on trust, as well as the 2022 book Strategic Science Communication. His work has been funded by the National Science Foundation, the US Department of Agriculture, and a range of foundations, including recent work for The Kavli Foundation on science communication in the context of 'basic' science. He served as primary author for the National Science Board's chapter on public attitudes about science for the 2014-2020 editions of Science and Engineering Indicators and is on the editorial boards of Science Communication, Public Understanding of Science, Environmental Communication, Risk Analysis, and the International Journal of Science Education (B): Communication and Public Engagement.