Stand up for Science: Practical Approaches to Discussing Science that Matters

Information about Andrew Maynard

What is your name, title, and role at Arizona State?

My name is Andrew Maynard. I am a professor in the School for the Future of Innovation in Society at Arizona State University, and I direct the ASU Risk Innovation Lab. 

Why are your public engagement efforts in education and/or outreach important (to you and/or to the cause you’re working to promote)?

Much of my work involves helping people make informed decisions around issues that potentially impact their lives, and for this, effective engagement is critical.  For effective decision-making, we need to be able to get useful knowledge out of the heads of people that have it, and into the hands of people who can use it. This means not only understanding how to open up effective lines of communication, but also understanding what potentially impedes communication and engagement.  It also requires practice – lots of it!

Engagement isn’t just about decision-making for me though. Knowledge and understanding both enrich and empower individuals and communities, and I think that scientists – especially in public universities – have a responsibility to ensure that they share their knowledge and understanding as widely and as effectively as possible to enrich and empower others.

Andrew Maynard on Audience

Who do you interact with when working in education and/or outreach? What makes this audience different from other groups that you might interact with?

Apart from students and colleagues (both really important when it comes to education and outreach), many of my direct interactions are with online audiences, and with journalists/the media.  However, because so much of my work is focused on making connections between people who know stuff and people who can use it, I end up working with everyone from colleagues across vastly different disciplines, to people in industry, non-government organizations and government agencies, to teachers, students, and members of the public more broadly. 

Perhaps my greatest interest at the moment though is casual learners – people who are driven by their own curiosity or need to find out more about things that interest or affect them. This is a really interesting audience to me, as they effectively control the conversation – if you’re not grabbing their attention and giving them something they think is worth their while, they have no reason to listen to you.

Casual learners are increasingly using platforms like YouTube, and there’s some fantastic science content there already.  But there are also huge gaps in this content, and a noticeable lack of scientists attempting to fill it.  So much of my education and outreach work at the moment is exploring ways of filling these gaps by helping scientists meet this need and opportunity.

What suggestions do you have for making interactions with educators, learners, and/or lay-audiences as effective as possible?

Everyone seems to have their own ideas about effective engagement, but for me, it comes down to five things:

·        Being audience-centric (it’s about them, not you);

·        Listening to your audience, and taking them seriously (and being prepared to change your ideas based on what you learn);

·        Having the humility to recognize the limits of your expertise and the validity of theirs;

·        Thinking of interactions as a partnership; and

·        Providing your audience with something of value.

These to me are foundational – they don’t get into the practicalities of engagement, but without them, it’s hard to build trust and engage effectively.

What is the biggest challenge you face when trying to work with educators, learners, and/or lay-audiences? What is the biggest reward?

One of the biggest challenges is engaging around contentious issues, where people already have set ideas about what’s right or wrong.  This applies to working with scientists and colleagues as much as it does working with other audiences.  Trust-building is incredibly important here, but this takes time and effort, and often means putting your own ideas on the line and having to both defend and question them at times.  This is hard and sometimes exhausting work, and can put you in a tough position, but at the same time, it’s important if you want to help people use evidence in ways that benefits them.

And the biggest rewards? When someone begins to see the world and their lives in a way that enriches and empowers them, in part as a result of working with you.

As an aside, there is always the lure of mega-impact and scalability here – I would be thrilled if I could say I reach millions of people with the communication and engagement work I do.  But so often, it’s the hidden interactions and impacts that very few if any people other than those involved see that give me the biggest rewards. Especially where they involve people that are too often marginalized by mainstream education and engagement initiatives.

What are you trying to accomplish when you write to or speak with educators, learners, and/or lay-audiences?

I have three things that I aim for in engaging with others:

·        Enriching them (helping them see the world in ways that enriches their life);

·        Empowering them (providing access to knowledge and insights that help them have control of their lives); and

·        Educating them (providing skills and knowledge that they can use to good effect). 

When I engage with others, I tend to touch on all three. And all three span talking about specific pieces of information, to how to make sense of information and use it.

For instance, the work I do on the YouTube channel Risk Bites (http://youtube.com/riskbites) is mainly aimed at empowering people by helping them understand risk in a way that leads to informed decisions.  But it also serves a dual purpose of providing educational resources for teachers and others.

In contrast, the Science Showcase YouTube channel (http://YouTube.com/ScienceShowcase) leans more to enrichment (with videos about interesting science), although it also includes information that people can use.

In all of this though, I see my role as giving people access to information that they can use, in a way that makes it as accessible and as useable as possible. My role isn’t to tell people how to think or what to believe, but to give them access to information and help them understand and use it to benefit themselves and those around them.

Andrew Maynard on Messaging

When you’re planning to interact with educators, learners, and/or lay-audiences, how do you decide what you want to focus on?

This is a tough one! In an ideal world, I would try and focus on things that I know or think people are interested in, or that will be of value to them. But in reality, what I focus on is a combination of what I’m interested in and whether I think others will be interested in it.

For example, we have a website on the science of food ingredient safety – http://crisbits.org – where we focus on articles that address issues that are currently attracting attention. The same goes for the pieces I write for places like The Conversation (https://theconversation.com/profiles/andrew-maynard-128048/articles)

On the other hand, on the YouTube channel Science Showcase (http://youtube.com/scienceshowcase) scientists are posting videos about things they think casual learners will be interested in – in this case, we don’t know how much interest there’s likely to be until we post!

In both cases though, I am always mindful of what people will want to read or watch, and where the value is to them of spending time engaging with our content rather than doing something else.  The bottom line is, if what we’re producing isn’t of clear value to others, we’re doing something wrong.

If a scientist wanted a single idea to “stick” in the mind of an educator, learner, and/or lay-audience, what advice would you give them as to how best to shape/pitch that idea?

There are plenty of ways to develop “sticky” messages that draw on research and experience in fields as diverse as marketing and advertising, to public health.  Great care needs to be taken here though, as it’s easy to slip into manipulation, which is less about the validity of the message or the messenger, and more about how to convince, persuade or trick someone into thinking or doing what you want.

That said, with communication that is genuinely focused on helping the audience make informed decisions, and helping them best-use the information that is available to them, trust and narrative are important.

Trust takes time to build up. It is built on expertise and credibility. But it also depends on developing trusted relationships with communities, and having a public profile that supports what you say and do.

Even with trust, how information is conveyed is critical to how it’s received and used.  Having a clear focus and narrative structure are important here – essentially making it as easy as possible for the audience to understand what you are saying, and why it’s relevant to them.

Andrew Maynard on Narrative

Do you use stories or narratives as a tool to communicate with educators, learners, and/or lay-audiences? If so, what kinds of narratives?  

Every form of communication is a story or narrative – but some are more effective than others!  Even scientific papers use their own form of story telling, although it’s often a form that doesn’t work well with audiences outside of a specific field.

So yes, I use stories and narratives – and because we have evolved to interpret the world through stories, I see this as essential to effective communication. I use narratives that are designed to make the information I’m conveying as accessible and relevant as possible to my audience, and that means using different forms of narrative for different audiences.

For some, a Hollywood movie-style narrative works well (e.g. “everything’s OK; we have a problem; we have a major crisis; a hero saves the day; things are better than before”). In other cases, a more direct narrative is appropriate (e.g. “this is the issue; this is why it’s important; this is how science is helping us develop ways forward; this is what the world could be like if we develop and use this science responsibly”).

The bottom line for me is that it’s important to match narrative style and “story telling” to your audience, what they are interested in, and what you are trying to achieve.  All while remembering that your audience doesn’t have to listen to you, so you need to be providing something of value to them every step of the way.

What kinds of documents or presentations are most effective at capturing and maintaining an educators’, learners’, and/or lay-audiences’ attention?

Good ones! 

There are no easy rules here (and if there were, they would vary from audience to audience), and one of the biggest mistakes people make is trying to follow what they think are good rules without thinking about their audience.

That said, whether I’m writing an article, making a video, or creating a slideshow, there are three things I always try and think about:

1.  Who is my audience?

2.  What are they interested in?

3.  How can I most effectively use the medium I’m working in to meet their interests?

From here, I will select approaches that I know work with different media and audiences – such as developing a clear and focused narrative within a written piece; creating simple slides in a slideshow; using economy of expression in a video.  And I’ll rigorously do what writers call “killing your darlings” – removing material that I like but has no relevance to my audience, or that obfuscates or diminishes the points I’m trying to make.

At the end of the day, it’s less about the medium, and more about how you use it to communicate and engage effectively.