Abstract:Climate scientists need the trust of lay audiences if they are to share their knowledge. But significant audience segments—those doubtful or dismissive of climate change—distrust climate scientists. In response, climate scientists can undertake one of two general communication strategies for enhancing trust, each appealing to one of two broad types of cognitive processing mechanisms. In the first, the communicator displays traits like humor, attractiveness, vigorous delivery, and likeability that audiences use… Show more
“…Results of this study confirm earlier research that has shown that personal trust in climate science is a key lever for climate awareness and action (Malka et al 2009;Kahan et al 2012). This highlights the importance of communication interventions to improve public trust in climate science (Goodwin and Dahlstrom 2014) to enhance awareness and knowledge about climate change impacts and adaptation options (Moser 2014).…”
A growing body of literature argues that subjective factors can more accurately explain individual adaptation to climate change than objective measurers of adaptive capacity. Recent studies have shown that personal belief in climate change and affect are much better in explaining climate awareness and action than income, education or gender. This study focuses on the process of individual adaptation to climate change. It assesses and compares the influence of cognitive, experiential and structural factors on individuals' views and intentions regarding climate change adaptation. Data from this study comes from a survey with 836 forest owners in Sweden. Ordinal and binary logistic regression was used to test hypotheses about the different factors. Results show that cognitive factors-namely personal level of trust in climate science, belief in the salience of climate change and risk assessment-are the only statistically significant factors that can directly explain individuals' intention to adapt to climate change and their sense of urgency. Findings also suggest that structural or socio-demographic factors do not have a statistically significant influence on adaptation decision-making among Swedish forest owners. The study also offers valuable insights for communication interventions to promote adaptation. Findings strongly suggest that communication interventions should focus more strongly on building trust and addressing stakeholders' individual needs and experiences.
“…Results of this study confirm earlier research that has shown that personal trust in climate science is a key lever for climate awareness and action (Malka et al 2009;Kahan et al 2012). This highlights the importance of communication interventions to improve public trust in climate science (Goodwin and Dahlstrom 2014) to enhance awareness and knowledge about climate change impacts and adaptation options (Moser 2014).…”
A growing body of literature argues that subjective factors can more accurately explain individual adaptation to climate change than objective measurers of adaptive capacity. Recent studies have shown that personal belief in climate change and affect are much better in explaining climate awareness and action than income, education or gender. This study focuses on the process of individual adaptation to climate change. It assesses and compares the influence of cognitive, experiential and structural factors on individuals' views and intentions regarding climate change adaptation. Data from this study comes from a survey with 836 forest owners in Sweden. Ordinal and binary logistic regression was used to test hypotheses about the different factors. Results show that cognitive factors-namely personal level of trust in climate science, belief in the salience of climate change and risk assessment-are the only statistically significant factors that can directly explain individuals' intention to adapt to climate change and their sense of urgency. Findings also suggest that structural or socio-demographic factors do not have a statistically significant influence on adaptation decision-making among Swedish forest owners. The study also offers valuable insights for communication interventions to promote adaptation. Findings strongly suggest that communication interventions should focus more strongly on building trust and addressing stakeholders' individual needs and experiences.
“…Trust is receiving growing attention as one of the central issues in science communication. Even though overall trust in science remains strong (5), many are pointing to a crisis in trust between the public and specific areas of science as an obstacle to successful science communication (73,74). For example, survey data suggest that trust in institutional actors matters more for the acceptance of technologies than individual knowledge or education levels (75,76).…”
Section: Future Narrative Intersections With Science Communicationmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…Similarly, the link between knowledge and concern about climate change was found to depend upon levels of trust in scientists (77). Although persuasion theories suggest peripheral source cues that lend themselves to trustworthiness (78), developing trust in the midst of more controversial science communication contexts demands different tactics, but still remains challenging (74).…”
Section: Future Narrative Intersections With Science Communicationmentioning
Although storytelling often has negative connotations within science, narrative formats of communication should not be disregarded when communicating science to nonexpert audiences. Narratives offer increased comprehension, interest, and engagement. Nonexperts get most of their science information from mass media content, which is itself already biased toward narrative formats. Narratives are also intrinsically persuasive, which offers science communicators tactics for persuading otherwise resistant audiences, although such use also raises ethical considerations. Future intersections of narrative research with ongoing discussions in science communication are introduced.persuasion | ethics S torytelling often has a bad reputation within science (1).Viewed as baseless or even manipulative, stories are often denigrated with statements such as, "the plural of anecdote is not data." Such a perspective is valuable within the context of scientific data collection to underscore the important difference between making informed generalizations from systematically sampled populations versus overgeneralizations from small and often biased samples.However, when the context moves from data collection to the communication of science to nonexpert audiences, stories, anecdotes, and narratives become not only more appropriate but potentially more important. Research suggests that narratives are easier to comprehend and audiences find them more engaging than traditional logical-scientific communication (3, 4). More pragmatically, the sources from which nonexperts receive most of their science information are already biased toward narrative formats of communication. Once out of formal schooling, nonexpert audiences get the majority of their scientific information from mass media content (5). Because media practitioners have to compete for the attention of their audiences, they routinely rely on stories, anecdotes, and other narrative formats to cut although the information clutter and resonate with their audiences. Although the plural of anecdote may not be data, the anecdote has a greater chance of reaching and engaging with a nonexpert audience. The challenge for science communicators, then, is to decide when and how narratives can effectively and appropriately help them communicate to nonexperts about science.The purpose of this article is to synthesize literature on narrative communication and place it within a science communication context. The article begins with a review of narrative literature, as well as the mass media context through which most nonexpert audiences get their information about science. The article then reviews the potential persuasive impacts of narrative communication and the ethical considerations of using narrative to communicate science. Finally, future intersections of narrative with ongoing questions in science communication are introduced.
NarrativesMost individuals have an inherent understanding of what it means to tell a story. Communication scholars supplement this colloquial understanding of narr...
“…Goodwin and Dahlstrom [100] explored the levels of trust between climate scientists and their lay audiences, and suggested that trust was established, at least in part, when communicators make themselves vulnerable to their audiences by offering predictions that may in the end be proven wrong and by accepting the consequences of these incorrect predictions. On this premise, weather forecasters are highly trusted, not because they are flawless in their predictions, but because they make predictions on a daily basis that are then tested empirically by their lay audience.…”
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