Wanna be a Hero, Try SciComm!
World After COVID
We see a lot of people discussing world before and after COVID in terms of various aspects: from economics and education to research. However, we need a world-wide commitment to resolve this challenge such as public vaccination as well as safe distancing and being careful about personal hygiene. Although some people think vaccination is a privilege thanks to accumulated scientific-as human history as old-knowledge of humanity towards civilization rather than plain survival of the fittest by contribution of scientists from many different race, religion, nation or a color, yet many people (i.e. anti-vax supporters) has still been thinking how to avoid being vaccinated and outcomes of a retracted article or worried about being tracked by a chip in it.
Fake It Till You Make It
One of the main reasons behind all these conspiracy theories might be light fast spread of fake news circulating on social media and messaging apps easily compared to the truth[1]. Interestingly when the story is repeated and more people believe the story, it seems a fact or the one and the only truth (i.e. illusory truth effect[2] and socially reinforced lazy thinking[3]).
Science Communication – the Linker
Let Perspective Matters
Conflict is a result of human interaction in the presence of mutually exclusive interests[4]. In fact, science might be an outcome and might also be the source of this conflicting ideas. Therefore, we need a deeper understanding of acceptance rate of fake news by looking from different perspectives for the “scimera” (piffling based on some sort of scientific evidence by misunderstanding the concept).
In this case, we might need a basic solution such as building the trust to scientific community. Even though many people respect scientists[5], scientific writings have been becoming more and more complicated, even for a scientist to understand![6][7] If people do not communicate, do not understand each other, their perspectives might be absurd and gibberish to each other after a while, since the communication is the very essential part of being human.
Dont let the data speak itself, lets discuss and engage
We need science communication not only between scientists and public, but also among scientists. Well, there is this belief among scientists that the way of doing a good science is to let the data speak itself. On the contrary, in many occurrences the interpretation of data changes based on your hypothesis[8]. Moreover, it is difficult to be 100% sure about anything in any field based on a data. It is better to explain and discuss the data with strength and limitations of a study with comparison of recent literature.
On the other hand, letting data to speak itself might not be the ideal solution to build the trust in public. It is as important as to explain the story and use good visuals to give audience an opportunity to relate and understand the concept[9] so that they can internalize. In addition, sharing and discussing the relevant research with them might help to eliminate their concerns regarding the science and given topic. And let’s learn from their perspectives to improve the delivery of scientific knowledge.
This is where science communication steps in. SciComm helps to close the gap between research scientists and public with various engagement activities such as tedtalks, technofests, scientific illustrations and taking feedbacks from attendees.
Learned Helplessness or Alternative Paths
It is not a secret anymore that the academic positions are limited, yet there are a lot more PhDs than the positions in academia[10] [11]. Furthermore, recruiters might think that PhD holders are under/overqualified depending on the job prospects.
Yes, we can change the situation; academia is not the only option after graduate studies despite the dominant thought of staying in academia. Besides, “overqualification” might not be a curse. In reality, the skill sets learnt through graduate studies (i.e. critical thinking, adaptive learning, following up to date literature, overcoming a failure, presentation and data interpretation skills) might help to overcome the barriers between people having no/little scientific background and researchers (i.e. lack of technical understanding, wrong interpretation of concepts, distrust due to lack of communication), so help to build the bridge between academia and public engagement.
When the scientific knowledge is not accepted with the public and authorities, we all pay the price as we have recently experienced in COVID and measles[12]. Being a science communicator means helping to save millions of people by building the trust between the community and current research. Spider Man might be obsolete in the presence of scientific communicators!
[1] https://news.mit.edu/2018/study-twitter-false-news-travels-faster-true-stories-0308
[2] https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/illusion-chasers/i-heard-it-before-so-it-must-be-true/
[3] https://www.apa.org/news/apa/2020/02/fake-news
[4] https://www.straitstimes.com/opinion/learning-to-see-things-from-anothers-perspective
[5] https://www.forbes.com/sites/niallmccarthy/2016/03/31/americas-most-prestigious-professions-in-2016-infographic/?sh=9d9b79c19260
[6] https://www-nature-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/news/it-s-not-just-you-science-papers-are-getting-harder-to-read-1.21751
[7] https://www.natureindex.com/news-blog/science-research-papers-getting-harder-to-read-acronyms-jargon
[8] https://genomebiology-biomedcentral-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/articles/10.1186/s13059-020-02133-w
[9] https://hbr.org/2014/04/data-doesnt-speak-for-itself
[10] https://www-ncbi-nlm-nih-gov.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/pmc/articles/PMC4309283/
[11] https://www-nature-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/articles/nbt.2706
[12] https://www-nejm-org.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa1912514
