Department of Political Science and Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48106, USA.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2013 Aug 20;110 Suppl 3(Suppl 3):14048-54. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1212726110. Epub 2013 Aug 12.
Many members of the scientific community attempt to convey information to policymakers and the public. Much of this information is ignored or misinterpreted. This article describes why these outcomes occur and how science communicators can achieve better outcomes. The article focuses on two challenges associated with communicating scientific information to such audiences. One challenge is that people have less capacity to pay attention to scientific presentations than many communicators anticipate. A second challenge is that people in politicized environments often make different choices about whom to believe than do people in other settings. Together, these challenges cause policymakers and the public to be less responsive to scientific information than many communicators desire. Research on attention and source credibility can help science communicators better adapt to these challenges. Attention research clarifies when, and to what type of stimuli, people do (and do not) pay attention. Source credibility research clarifies the conditions under which an audience will believe scientists' descriptions of phenomena rather than the descriptions of less-valid sources. Such research can help communicators stay true to their science while making their findings more memorable and more believable to more audiences.
许多科学界成员试图向政策制定者和公众传达信息。但这些信息中的大部分被忽视或误解。本文阐述了这些结果产生的原因，以及科学传播者如何取得更好的效果。本文主要关注向这些受众传播科学信息时所面临的两个挑战。一个挑战是，人们关注科学演示的能力比许多传播者预期的要低。另一个挑战是，在政治化的环境中，人们的选择与其他环境中的人不同，他们会选择相信谁。这两个挑战共同导致政策制定者和公众对科学信息的反应不如许多传播者所希望的那样积极。关于注意力和来源可信度的研究可以帮助科学传播者更好地应对这些挑战。注意力研究阐明了人们何时以及对何种类型的刺激会（以及不会）集中注意力。来源可信度研究阐明了在什么条件下，受众会相信科学家对现象的描述，而不是不太可信的来源的描述。此类研究可以帮助传播者忠实于他们的科学，同时使他们的发现对更多的受众更具记忆性和可信度。
