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Science communication that fosters shared understanding, co-creation of meaning, and prompts large-scale change, is far from a one-way transmission of information. Rather, it is a multifaceted system that integrates different forms of knowledge and ways of knowing, attends to the complexity of social and environmental challenges, and conveys strong verbal and nonverbal skills (Brown et al., 2010). In this paper, the authors argue that effective science communication requires "engagement" rather than traditional knowledge transfer, and highlight the relevance of social considerations to accomplish effective engagement. The authors offer primary pathways for engagement that are key to spanning the boundary between science and society, and specify concrete suggestions for communication centers to implement these pathways. The authors conclude by discussing examples wherein social factors played a role in successful engagement.

Epistemic beliefs -- one's beliefs about the nature of knowledge -- have been recognized as important predictors of learning outcomes. This study focuses on the role of epistemic beliefs in predicting citizen engagement with science and technology. In accordance with theories of learning and domain knowledge acquisition, the findings highlight the potential importance of epistemic beliefs in motivating individuals to be interested in and to consume informative media content related to science and technology. The analyses confirm that certain cognitive dispositions and epistemic beliefs substantially increase the ability to explain variation in citizens' interest in science and technology and consumption of related news content. If the relationships we observe represent causal effects, enhancing epistemic motivations might be an effective strategy in achieving science communication's goal of cultivating interest and promoting citizen engagement with science and technology.

This essay advocates for a transformative, community-centric approach to science communication, promoting inclusivity and recognizing the impact of lived experiences. We challenge the prevalent population-centric approach and underscore the importance of engaging persistently marginalized communities, notably Black Americans. Drawing from health communication literature, we unveil a comprehensive project aimed at understanding Black Americans' experiences and perspectives on science. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The use of artificial intelligence-based algorithms for the curation of news content by social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter has upended the gatekeeping role long held by traditional news outlets. This has caused some US policymakers to argue that platforms are skewing news diets against them, and such claims are beginning to take hold among some voters. In a nationally representative survey experiment, we explore whether traditional models of media bias perceptions extend to beliefs about algorithmic news bias. We find that partisan cues effectively shape individuals' attitudes about algorithmic news bias but have asymmetrical effects. Specifically, whereas in-group directional partisan cues stimulate bias perceptions for members of both parties, Democrats, but not Republicans, also respond to out-group cues. We conclude with a discussion about the implications for the formation of attitudes about new technologies and the potential for polarization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The associations between social and psychological influences and environmental attitudes, intentions and behavior have generated considerable interest, both in the fields of environmental behavior and of environmental education. We use the 2010 General Social Survey (GSS) to study these associations and expand the scope of earlier studies by including additional measures across social demographic, social psychological and behavioral blocks. The findings highlight the relationships between social psychological constructs and environmental concern and behavior, as well as the relationships between social demographic characteristics and environmental values and beliefs. The findings from this study will be useful to environmental educators and communicators interested in studying the social psychological and social demographic bases of environmental concern and behavior.

Past research on the relationship between scientists' normative beliefs about public engagement in the context of willingness to engage could prove misleading if respondents do not consider the impacts of engagement activities when responding to survey questions. This study asks scientists to report normative beliefs in the context of engagement impacts and explores correlations between these responses and engagement willingness. Results suggest mentioning positive societal impact positively affects normative beliefs, while mentioning lost research time negatively affects normative beliefs. However, changing the measurement context does not affect the non-relationship between normative beliefs and engagement willingness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The careful choice of tactics—such as specific messages, styles, channels, or sources—is how strategic science communicators ensure that the time and money going into communication results in intended changes to chosen audiences' beliefs, feelings, and frames, as well as associated behaviors. Using a sample of scientists from American research universities (N = 516), we assess scientists' willingness to use 11 different communication tactics and the relationship between these tactics and potential predictors. We find that scientists are open to a range of communication tactics. Practical and theoretical implications for science communication are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We have little systematic knowledge about scholars' goals for public engagement in the academic literature. This study therefore provides a secondary analysis of two surveys of scholars that included closed-ended questions about goals. One survey from 2017 was from a sample of Canadian grant recipients from a federal science funding agency, while the second survey from 2018 comes from a sample of professors at top American research universities. The focus of this research is on both presenting novel data about scholars' expressed goals and exploring the relationships between these goals and potential predictors of these goals, including demographics, past engagement behavior, and overall views about public engagement. Areas for future research are then described. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Epistemic beliefs – one's beliefs about the nature of knowledge – have been recognized as important predictors of learning outcomes. This study focuses on the role of epistemic beliefs in predicting citizen engagement with science and technology. In accordance with theories of learning and domain knowledge acquisition, the findings highlight the potential importance of epistemic beliefs in motivating individuals to be interested in and to consume informative media content related to science and technology. The analyses confirm that certain cognitive dispositions and epistemic beliefs substantially increase the ability to explain variation in citizens' interest in science and technology and consumption of related news content. If the relationships we observe represent causal effects, enhancing epistemic motivations might be an effective strategy in achieving science communication's goal of cultivating interest and promoting citizen engagement with science and technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article investigates the impact science communication training has on engagement intentions through a parallel multiple mediation model. Theory of planned behavior variables for internal efficacy, response efficacy, norms, and attitudes are examined as potential mediators. Based on a survey of randomly selected scientists from universities in the Association of American Universities, results indicate indirect effects for internal efficacy and attitudes toward the audience and consistent direct effects found in earlier research. This research provides a more comprehensive examination of how communication training contributes to scientists' public engagement activity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article seeks to explain how science has emerged as political brand. While science and politics have intersected for centuries, more recent social, cultural, and political events led to increased attention to the role of science in everyday life and how science is used in policy decision-making. This led to a tipping point in 2017 when the March for Science was formed, following what many in the U.S. and countries around the world viewed as anti-science stances by political leaders. The political spectacle of the March for Science not only brought increased attention to the scientific community, but also emerged to define the brand of science in society. Drawing on research from the role of brands in consumer culture – including political marketing, brand resonance, and brand community – I describe the implications of the science brand for the scientific enterprise, and the ways in which the scientific community consider the strategic communication of their brand within the political marketplace. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

According to cultural cognition theory, individuals hold opinions about politically contested issues like climate change that are consistent with their “cultural way of life,” conforming their opinions to how they think society should be organized and to what they perceive are the attitudes of their cultural peers. Yet despite dozens of cultural cognition studies, none have directly examined the role of the news media in facilitating these differential interpretations. To address this gap, drawing on a national survey of US adults administered in 2015, we statistically modeled the cultural cognition process in relation to news choices and media effects on public attitudes about climate change. Individuals possessing strongly held cultural worldviews, our findings show, not only choose news outlets where they expect to find culturally congruent arguments about climate change, but they also selectively process the arguments they encounter. Overall, our study demonstrates the substantial role that cultural cognition in combination with news media choices play in contributing to opinion polarization on climate change and other politicized science topics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using the immediate release of the Working Group 1 Summary for Policymakers of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Fifth Assessment Report as a case study, this article seeks to describe what type of actors were most active during the summary release, the substance of the most propagated tweets during the summary release, and the media sources that attracted the most attention during the summary release. The results from the study suggest that non-elite actors, such as individual bloggers and concerned citizens, accounted for the majority of the most propagated tweets in the sample. This study also finds that the majority of the most propagated tweets in the sample focused on public understanding of the report. Finally, while mainstream media sources were the most frequently discussed media sources, a number of new media and science news and information sources compete for audience attention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The associations between social and psychological influences and environmental attitudes, intentions and behavior have generated considerable interest, both in the fields of environmental behavior and of environmental education. We use the 2010 General Social Survey (GSS) to study these associations and expand the scope of earlier studies by including additional measures across social demographic, social psychological and behavioral blocks. The findings highlight the relationships between social psychological constructs and environmental concern and behavior, as well as the relationships between social demographic characteristics and environmental values and beliefs. The findings from this study will be useful to environmental educators and communicators interested in studying the social psychological and social demographic bases of environmental concern and behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Using data from a nationally representative survey of U.S. adults, this study explores how trust in key actors to responsibly manage artificial intelligence (AI) develops among members of the U.S. population and how trust, along with other key factors, shapes public attitudes toward AI. Greater trust is linked to stronger support for AI, both directly and indirectly (through risk and benefit perceptions). Furthermore, the strength or direction of the link between trust and support—as well as media diets and trust—differs significantly for liberals and conservatives, suggesting that Americans are indeed beginning to process AI-related information through a political lens. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: This paper reviews nationally representative public opinion surveys on artificial intelligence (AI) in the United States, with a focus on areas related to health care. The potential health applications of AI continue to gain attention owing to their promise as well as challenges. For AI to fulfill its potential, it must not only be adopted by physicians and health providers but also by patients and other members of the public., Objective: This study reviews the existing survey research on the United States' public attitudes toward AI in health care and reveals the challenges and opportunities for more effective and inclusive engagement on the use of AI in health settings., Methods: We conducted a systematic review of public opinion surveys, reports, and peer-reviewed journal articles published on Web of Science, PubMed, and Roper iPoll between January 2010 and January 2022. We include studies that are nationally representative US public opinion surveys and include at least one or more questions about attitudes toward AI in health care contexts. Two members of the research team independently screened the included studies. The reviewers screened study titles, abstracts, and methods for Web of Science and PubMed search results. For the Roper iPoll search results, individual survey items were assessed for relevance to the AI health focus, and survey details were screened to determine a nationally representative US sample. We reported the descriptive statistics available for the relevant survey questions. In addition, we performed secondary analyses on 4 data sets to further explore the findings on attitudes across different demographic groups., Results: This review includes 11 nationally representative surveys. The search identified 175 records, 39 of which were assessed for inclusion. Surveys include questions related to familiarity and experience with AI; applications, benefits, and risks of AI in health care settings; the use of AI in disease diagnosis, treatment, and robotic caregiving; and related issues of data privacy and surveillance. Although most Americans have heard of AI, they are less aware of its specific health applications. Americans anticipate that medicine is likely to benefit from advances in AI; however, the anticipated benefits vary depending on the type of application. Specific application goals, such as disease prediction, diagnosis, and treatment, matter for the attitudes toward AI in health care among Americans. Most Americans reported wanting control over their personal health data. The willingness to share personal health information largely depends on the institutional actor collecting the data and the intended use., Conclusions: Americans in general report seeing health care as an area in which AI applications could be particularly beneficial. However, they have substantial levels of concern regarding specific applications, especially those in which AI is involved in decision-making and regarding the privacy of health information., (©Becca Beets, Todd P Newman, Emily L Howell, Luye Bao, Shiyu Yang. Originally published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research (https://www.jmir.org), 04.04.2023.)

This chapter provides an overview of strategic communication concepts and frameworks that support scientists' communication and engagement efforts. While this chapter provides a synthesis of the research in these different areas of science communication and how the life sciences and medical science can leverage particularly insights, communicating science in an age of politicization requires a reflection not just at what drives differences in how the public thinks about the sciences and scientists, but also insights into our shared thoughts and feelings about science. To that end, the chapter concludes with a broader examination of the connection between science and society through an overview of new and innovative research on how both scientists and the public think and feel about science and the sciences more specifically. Connecting these different frameworks and concepts provides important directions for the life science community to consider in their specific communication and engagement efforts, and those of the scientific community more broadly., (Copyright © 2022 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)