Pikas survive harsh winters by reducing their metabolism to conserve energy and by eating yak feces.
Image credit: Qingsheng Chi.
Edited by Baruch Fischhoff, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, and accepted by the Editorial Board July 1, 2013 (received for review April 29, 2013)
Abstract
This essay examines the societal dynamics surrounding modern science. It first discusses a number of challenges facing any effort to communicate science in social environments: lay publics with varying levels of preparedness for fully understanding new scientific breakthroughs; the deterioration of traditional media infrastructures; and an increasingly complex set of emerging technologies that are surrounded by a host of ethical, legal, and social considerations. Based on this overview, I discuss four areas in which empirical social science helps clarify intuitive but sometimes faulty assumptions about the social-level mechanisms of science communication and outline an agenda for bench and social scientists—driven by current social-scientific research in the field of science communication—to guide more effective communication efforts at the societal level in the future.
Footnotes
- ↵1E-mail: scheufele{at}gmail.com.
Author contributions: D.A.S. wrote the paper.
The author declares no conflict of interest.
This paper results from the Arthur M. Sackler Colloquium of the National Academy of Sciences, “The Science of Science Communication,” held May 21–22, 2012, at the National Academy of Sciences in Washington, DC. The complete program and audio files of most presentations are available on the NAS Web site at www.nasonline.org/science-communication.
This article is a PNAS Direct Submission. B.F. is a guest editor invited by the Editorial Board.
Communicating science in social settings
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- Social Sciences
- Social Sciences
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