SCALING UP SCIENCE COMMUNICATION – SCALUP

In domains as varied as vaccination or climate change a gap between the scientific consensus and public opinion. The existence of these consensus gaps speaks to the difficulty of communicating about science. To improve on science communication, we develop a multi-pronged approach: (i) We look for psychological biases that make some scientific content harder to accept, and develop messages that take these biases into account. (ii) We scale up interactive argumentation—in which scientists directly address laypeople—through various means such as chatbots. (iii) We help participants grasp the competence of scientists, either by highlighting scientific prowess, or by making participants less overconfident in their own (limited) knowledge. (iv) We make the strength of the scientific consensus more transparent by clearly displaying the number of scientists in agreement, and the diversity of converging approaches that led to the consensus.