Science relies on logic, repeatability, precision, evidence, rationality
But humans are not rational and in communication those things don’t work!
Humans are messy sacks of feelings who do things because we feel things
And yet a vaccine is useless if you can’t get someone to take it
But humans are not rational and in communication those things don’t work!
Humans are messy sacks of feelings who do things because we feel things
And yet a vaccine is useless if you can’t get someone to take it
Comments
But getting them to TRUST you, which is not about precision or process, it’s about EMOTION
Understanding audience, purpose, context, emotional strategy, those are all communication things
It’s a completely different skillset than science
You don’t NEED someone to understand why a vaccine works to get them to take it
You don’t need them to understand all scientific process
1) your actual purpose
2) the emotions that will help you accomplish that purpose
3) the emotions impeding your purpose
4) the structural and power dynamics at play
5) the assumptions made
6) the biases interfering with your ability to do all this
aka: communication things
Which is a problem when you’ve had decades of being told STEM is the only “hard” field!
I could see how this could be dangerous though, especially if your goal is to pass off bonkers science as real.
I have been on the receiving end of scientists having a knee-jerk reaction against what writers do though lol