Fixing the Communications Failure

The January edition of Nature (Nature 463, 296-297 (21 January 2010) | doi:10.1038/463296a; Published online 20 January 2010)  included a column entitled "Fixing the communications failure" in the context of how to convey scientific information or how science can more effectively be communicated in the "debate" forum.

This is more information along the cultural bias theme I started in a previous posting, but the disturbing thing here is that this synopsis of social psychology research shows that it doesn't matter how much a person knows about a subject, what matters is if that person looks like a person that the audience can relate to based on their cultural bias.  In short, if you're going to talk to hicks and try to convince them of something, you'd better look and sound like a hick.

While, this does not necessarily shed new light on the communications conundrum, after all, public speakers are told and told again to know their audience, it does add a twist.  For example, if you happen to be a person that has done all the research and has the state of the art science to bring to the table, you may not have a lightning bug's chance in a kid's bedroom of making your point if you trigger an audience or part of an audience's cultural bias.  This can be a reaction based, stupid as it may be, on whether or not you have facial hair, or whether or not you can even grow facial hair.  Whether you wear plaid, twill or polyester....it makes you want to try on a few disguises, eh?  Hollywood makeup artists and costumers might have a whole new calling in the science world.