this is a picture of our planet which is
round if you think that the earth is
flat then you must be an idiot this is
evidence from NASA that shows our earth
warming at a concerning rate if you
don’t believe in human caused climate
change then you must be stupid and this
is the equation we required to calculate
the orbital velocity of the satellite
that helped contribute to that global
warming data if you don’t know how to
derive this equation then you must be
stupid it is easy and sometimes fun to
imagine that the people who don’t
understand the things that we understand
are ignorant or just plain stupid but
not only is that hurtful it’s also
inaccurate and worse it’s
counterproductive to education
especially science education I’m a
science communicator I am also from West
Virginia and growing up in West Virginia
has fundamentally shaped the way that I
talk about science and that has mostly
to do with this West Virginia is number
one in the entire country when it comes
to the fewest number of people that
believe global warming is happening as
you might imagine this could have
something to do with our state’s
relationship with coal something that
provides 30 percent of our nation’s
electricity something that our state
proudly has a lot of but it’s also
something that is the single largest
contributor of carbon dioxide emissions
from human activity contributing to
global warming and therefore climate
change and so as a science communicator
and a proud West Virginian it’s
important to me that we work to get
those numbers up but you don’t do that
by calling those people stupid an all
too common tactic I’ve seen on social
media I pulled these tweets from Twitter
just in the last month surprisingly
calling someone stupid does not inspire
them to want to learn more about climate
change know if you really want to get to
the Under
reasons behind that West Virginia number
you first have to understand what it’s
like to grow up in West Virginia West
Virginia is an absolutely beautiful
state and our identity as West
Virginians is closely associated with
our land wild and wonderful West
Virginia is known for our rolling
hilltops mountain climbing whitewater
rafting country roads and of course our
hunting and fishing West Virginians are
hardworking people who like to play on
our land and in many cases live off our
land but there is one thing that both
people inside and outside the state
associate with West Virginia and that of
course is coal now if you’re from inside
the state the story of coal that you’ve
been told is inherently different than
the story you’ll hear elsewhere as a
child the story you’re told is one of a
love story a story of how lucky we are
as West Virginians to be given this gift
of coal something that keeps the lights
on for America but as I grew older and
left home I also learned about the
negative impacts that coal has on our
state the many deaths that have occurred
on the job black lung the sweats
throughout Appalachia and of course the
chemical spills from coal plants like
the one just a few years ago that left
300,000 West Virginia residents without
water and cost our state tens of
millions of dollars to clean up well you
don’t typically learn about that stuff
when you grow up in West Virginia
chances are if you grew up in West
Virginia you got most of your coal facts
from this organization Friends of coal
is an advocacy group founded by the coal
industry their mission statement says
that Friends of coal is dedicated to
inform and educate West Virginia
citizens about the coal industry and its
vital role in the state’s future future
Right Friends of coal and other coal
industry groups accomplish that in two
strategic ways first they recruit West
Virginia cultural icons to be spokesmen
for them at sports games charity events
and in commercials to talk about how
wonderful coal is and how
it is for our states in the past these
spokesmen have included NASCAR drivers
professional bass fisherman and head
football coaches of the very popular
football teams at West Virginia
University and Marshall University in
fact for many years we had something
called the friend Cole Bowl where these
two teams would come together and play
each other now this may seem
insignificant but it is particularly
powerful because when you live in a
state that generally ranks as one of the
worst states across many national lists
including highest rate of obesity
highest percentage of people on food
stamps highest rate of drug overdose
deaths and lowest median income you get
it when you live in a state where things
aren’t going so great but the football
team is good you really latch on to the
success of that football team and you
hail the people making it so when your
Idol supports cold you kind of want to
as well and while this strategy is
concerning it’s the second strategy that
they employ that is the most troubling
and this is the work they do in schools
hundreds of thousands of dollars worth
of grants have been given to teachers
across Appalachia who have been willing
to implement coalescence designed or
approved by the coal industry you can
imagine how unbiased and scientific
those lessons are unfortunately this is
a really appealing offer for teachers
who are already not given enough money
to buy the teaching lessons that their
classrooms need on a related coal in the
classroom program the president of the
West Virginia coal Association has said
not only is coal our history and our
legacy but it is our future and we need
young coal miners these kids answer all
the questions that anybody has about
coal I’ll bet they know more about it
than many adults in West Virginia and
that’s the significance of this coal in
the classroom program these kids are
taught to be a friend of coal they’re
taught that if you are not a friend of
coal then do you hate West Virginia
they’re shown that coal is integral to
their identity and they get this message
from their teachers representatives West
Virginia
Bertie’s and even their own parents who
received the same message when they were
kids and so when I talk about climate
change I remember these kids because
although economists will tell you that
the coal industry is dying on its own
mostly thanks to market forces from
cheaper alternatives these kids are
taught that it’s only our war on climate
change that is killing their coal
industry essentially they’re taught that
being environmentally friendly isn’t
friendly to them and so they have all
the incentives in the world to ignore
the science on climate change now this
doesn’t mean that we can’t criticize
this point of view but we have to do it
in the right way because if we paint
these communities with a broad stroke
and conclude that they don’t understand
the science because they are stupid then
we will never truly understand the issue
we’ll never see the corporate influence
the history the deep-seated pride behind
the issue we’ll never be able to analyze
the psychological cultural and many
times emotional reasons why certain
people deny science and then we’ll never
be able to bridge the gap between what
the public believes and what scientists
know and on that front we have our work
cut out for us because this problem
extends far beyond West Virginia this is
what is known as the consensus gap
across the board on various science
topics from the safety of genetically
modified foods to evolution to human
caused climate change there is a
difference between what the public
believes and what scientists who have
concluded from extended research in the
relevant field know right and this gap
exists not because Americans are stupid
more education is not going to be a
silver bullet for this problem because
humans are not logical animals we don’t
like to accept new information that
isn’t perfectly aligned with our
worldview and well when our worldview is
often shaped at such a young age then we
have to find new strategies for science
communication and I have two pieces of
face the first thing that we can do to
help bridge this gap in scientific
knowledge is learn to listen to the
communities we want to reach work to
respect and empathize with them don’t
assume they’re stupid essentially be
nice that sounds obvious but that is not
what society has taught us society has
taught us that if you’re smart you don’t
have to be kind if you’re a jerk that’s
okay as long as you’re intelligent as
long as you’re right characters like
house Sherlock Holmes basically all the
characters on the Big Bang Theory have
shown us this it is so popular in media
that it is literally a TV trope the
insufferable genius and I’m sure we’ve
all been a little bit guilty of this
mentality at some point right
it’s annoying to have a conversation on
a topic that you know well with someone
who clearly doesn’t know what they’re
talking about but has an opinion anyway
and in these conversations it’s probably
easy to be snarky make dismissive
statements and eventually if the
discussion grows long enough attacks to
that person’s character there’s an
internet adage that is relevant here
called Godwin’s law which states as an
online discussion grows longer the
probability of a comparison involving
Hitler approaches one this is not
helpful for science communication
because as soon as you personally attack
someone you have removed their ability
to think critically about that
conversation there are science behind
this in our brains we have something
called the prefrontal cortex this is the
front part of our brain that deals with
information processing and
decision-making you can think of it as
the part of your brain that deals with
rational thought we also have the
amygdala the amygdala is a different
part of your brain that deals with raw
human emotion people generally refer to
it as before f’s fight/flight feeding
in low stress situations for example
when someone is not calling you stupid
or comparing you to Hitler these two
parts of your brain work together pretty
well as a team to allow you to react to
information and make a rational decision
but in high-stress situations when
someone feels threatened or attacked the
amygdala has the power to completely
turn off the prefrontal cortex meaning
if you personally attack someone for
example by calling them stupid you have
scientifically removed their ability to
think critically about that conversation
and so being nice and go a long way
towards science education the second
thing that we can do to help bridge that
gap in scientific knowledge is to
remember that the people we talk to care
about different stuff than we do and so
we must bait the hook to suit the fish
this is a helpful role mostly used in
the marketing industry but science
educators can benefit from it as well
it basically means to focus on the
interests of your audience talk about
what they care about not what you think
they should care about an example
related to climate change on how not to
do this is polar bears now I don’t want
to say nobody cares about polar bears
but not that many people care about
polar bears and so we shouldn’t be using
them as a mascot for why everybody
should care about climate change instead
know your audience one of the best ways
to know your audience is to categorize
people and there are many ways to
categorize people but one of the most
popular ways and one of the most
powerful ways is political there’s this
idea that conservatives will never care
about climate change that’s not true
we’re just not generally good at
tailoring our message in a way that
speaks to them researchers of political
psychology have found that liberals tend
to value fairness equality protection
from harm and empathy while
conservatives more deeply value loyalty
purity patriotism
and respect for authority and so when
you’re talking to a conservative about
climate change don’t talk about saving
the planet right instead frame your
arguments about fighting climate change
as a way to make their land water and
air pure talk to them about how dirty
and disgusting America was before
environmental regulations
recent studies out of Stanford have
shown that conservatives are more likely
to support environmental policies when
they are framed to their values in this
way or talk about how climate change is
a national security threat putting our
military in danger president Trump’s
Secretary of Defense has said climate
change is impacting stability in areas
of the world where our troops are
operating today this is the case because
global warming adds heat to our planet
and that excess heat acts like a
powerful battery energizing our weather
events this means more powerful storms
and hurricanes longer droughts
record-breaking heat waves and sea level
rise that is changing the landscape here
and abroad last year President Trump
signed the National Defense
Authorization Act which specifically
cited climate change as a direct threat
to national security in the bill it
states as global temperatures rise
droughts and famines can lead to more
failed States which are breeding grounds
of extremist and terrorist organizations
the bill went on to point out the
dangers of sea level rise saying in the
Marshall Islands an Air Force radar
installation built on an asshole at a
cost of 1 billion dollars is projected
to be underwater within two decades in
the defense community climate change is
known as a national security risk
putting military lives and military
money and danger this message of climate
change will reach different people than
when we talk about polar bears bait the
hook to suit the fish today in our
country there is an unfortunate gap
between what the public believes and
what scientists know the first step
bridging that gap is to stop assuming
that those who don’t believe in the
science are stupid it is way more
nuanced than that and we will never
understand that nuance unless we choose
to be kind unless we choose to lead with
empathy and respect and learn what these
communities care about and so if you are
someone who wants to work to bridge this
gap in scientific knowledge you have to
ask yourself is your goal to be right or
is it to change people’s minds because
if all you want to be is right then go
ahead be snarky make fun of that person
call them stupid you may be right about
the science but you’ll be right in
isolation because that is a one-sided
conversation but if you want to be
persuasive if you want to make a
difference then you have to be nice you
have to realize that science
storytelling is not one-size-fits-all
because everybody cares about different
things essentially if you want to be an
agent of change don’t be stupid you have
to make the science nicer thank you [Applause]
round if you think that the earth is
flat then you must be an idiot this is
evidence from NASA that shows our earth
warming at a concerning rate if you
don’t believe in human caused climate
change then you must be stupid and this
is the equation we required to calculate
the orbital velocity of the satellite
that helped contribute to that global
warming data if you don’t know how to
derive this equation then you must be
stupid it is easy and sometimes fun to
imagine that the people who don’t
understand the things that we understand
are ignorant or just plain stupid but
not only is that hurtful it’s also
inaccurate and worse it’s
counterproductive to education
especially science education I’m a
science communicator I am also from West
Virginia and growing up in West Virginia
has fundamentally shaped the way that I
talk about science and that has mostly
to do with this West Virginia is number
one in the entire country when it comes
to the fewest number of people that
believe global warming is happening as
you might imagine this could have
something to do with our state’s
relationship with coal something that
provides 30 percent of our nation’s
electricity something that our state
proudly has a lot of but it’s also
something that is the single largest
contributor of carbon dioxide emissions
from human activity contributing to
global warming and therefore climate
change and so as a science communicator
and a proud West Virginian it’s
important to me that we work to get
those numbers up but you don’t do that
by calling those people stupid an all
too common tactic I’ve seen on social
media I pulled these tweets from Twitter
just in the last month surprisingly
calling someone stupid does not inspire
them to want to learn more about climate
change know if you really want to get to
the Under
reasons behind that West Virginia number
you first have to understand what it’s
like to grow up in West Virginia West
Virginia is an absolutely beautiful
state and our identity as West
Virginians is closely associated with
our land wild and wonderful West
Virginia is known for our rolling
hilltops mountain climbing whitewater
rafting country roads and of course our
hunting and fishing West Virginians are
hardworking people who like to play on
our land and in many cases live off our
land but there is one thing that both
people inside and outside the state
associate with West Virginia and that of
course is coal now if you’re from inside
the state the story of coal that you’ve
been told is inherently different than
the story you’ll hear elsewhere as a
child the story you’re told is one of a
love story a story of how lucky we are
as West Virginians to be given this gift
of coal something that keeps the lights
on for America but as I grew older and
left home I also learned about the
negative impacts that coal has on our
state the many deaths that have occurred
on the job black lung the sweats
throughout Appalachia and of course the
chemical spills from coal plants like
the one just a few years ago that left
300,000 West Virginia residents without
water and cost our state tens of
millions of dollars to clean up well you
don’t typically learn about that stuff
when you grow up in West Virginia
chances are if you grew up in West
Virginia you got most of your coal facts
from this organization Friends of coal
is an advocacy group founded by the coal
industry their mission statement says
that Friends of coal is dedicated to
inform and educate West Virginia
citizens about the coal industry and its
vital role in the state’s future future
Right Friends of coal and other coal
industry groups accomplish that in two
strategic ways first they recruit West
Virginia cultural icons to be spokesmen
for them at sports games charity events
and in commercials to talk about how
wonderful coal is and how
it is for our states in the past these
spokesmen have included NASCAR drivers
professional bass fisherman and head
football coaches of the very popular
football teams at West Virginia
University and Marshall University in
fact for many years we had something
called the friend Cole Bowl where these
two teams would come together and play
each other now this may seem
insignificant but it is particularly
powerful because when you live in a
state that generally ranks as one of the
worst states across many national lists
including highest rate of obesity
highest percentage of people on food
stamps highest rate of drug overdose
deaths and lowest median income you get
it when you live in a state where things
aren’t going so great but the football
team is good you really latch on to the
success of that football team and you
hail the people making it so when your
Idol supports cold you kind of want to
as well and while this strategy is
concerning it’s the second strategy that
they employ that is the most troubling
and this is the work they do in schools
hundreds of thousands of dollars worth
of grants have been given to teachers
across Appalachia who have been willing
to implement coalescence designed or
approved by the coal industry you can
imagine how unbiased and scientific
those lessons are unfortunately this is
a really appealing offer for teachers
who are already not given enough money
to buy the teaching lessons that their
classrooms need on a related coal in the
classroom program the president of the
West Virginia coal Association has said
not only is coal our history and our
legacy but it is our future and we need
young coal miners these kids answer all
the questions that anybody has about
coal I’ll bet they know more about it
than many adults in West Virginia and
that’s the significance of this coal in
the classroom program these kids are
taught to be a friend of coal they’re
taught that if you are not a friend of
coal then do you hate West Virginia
they’re shown that coal is integral to
their identity and they get this message
from their teachers representatives West
Virginia
Bertie’s and even their own parents who
received the same message when they were
kids and so when I talk about climate
change I remember these kids because
although economists will tell you that
the coal industry is dying on its own
mostly thanks to market forces from
cheaper alternatives these kids are
taught that it’s only our war on climate
change that is killing their coal
industry essentially they’re taught that
being environmentally friendly isn’t
friendly to them and so they have all
the incentives in the world to ignore
the science on climate change now this
doesn’t mean that we can’t criticize
this point of view but we have to do it
in the right way because if we paint
these communities with a broad stroke
and conclude that they don’t understand
the science because they are stupid then
we will never truly understand the issue
we’ll never see the corporate influence
the history the deep-seated pride behind
the issue we’ll never be able to analyze
the psychological cultural and many
times emotional reasons why certain
people deny science and then we’ll never
be able to bridge the gap between what
the public believes and what scientists
know and on that front we have our work
cut out for us because this problem
extends far beyond West Virginia this is
what is known as the consensus gap
across the board on various science
topics from the safety of genetically
modified foods to evolution to human
caused climate change there is a
difference between what the public
believes and what scientists who have
concluded from extended research in the
relevant field know right and this gap
exists not because Americans are stupid
more education is not going to be a
silver bullet for this problem because
humans are not logical animals we don’t
like to accept new information that
isn’t perfectly aligned with our
worldview and well when our worldview is
often shaped at such a young age then we
have to find new strategies for science
communication and I have two pieces of
face the first thing that we can do to
help bridge this gap in scientific
knowledge is learn to listen to the
communities we want to reach work to
respect and empathize with them don’t
assume they’re stupid essentially be
nice that sounds obvious but that is not
what society has taught us society has
taught us that if you’re smart you don’t
have to be kind if you’re a jerk that’s
okay as long as you’re intelligent as
long as you’re right characters like
house Sherlock Holmes basically all the
characters on the Big Bang Theory have
shown us this it is so popular in media
that it is literally a TV trope the
insufferable genius and I’m sure we’ve
all been a little bit guilty of this
mentality at some point right
it’s annoying to have a conversation on
a topic that you know well with someone
who clearly doesn’t know what they’re
talking about but has an opinion anyway
and in these conversations it’s probably
easy to be snarky make dismissive
statements and eventually if the
discussion grows long enough attacks to
that person’s character there’s an
internet adage that is relevant here
called Godwin’s law which states as an
online discussion grows longer the
probability of a comparison involving
Hitler approaches one this is not
helpful for science communication
because as soon as you personally attack
someone you have removed their ability
to think critically about that
conversation there are science behind
this in our brains we have something
called the prefrontal cortex this is the
front part of our brain that deals with
information processing and
decision-making you can think of it as
the part of your brain that deals with
rational thought we also have the
amygdala the amygdala is a different
part of your brain that deals with raw
human emotion people generally refer to
it as before f’s fight/flight feeding
in low stress situations for example
when someone is not calling you stupid
or comparing you to Hitler these two
parts of your brain work together pretty
well as a team to allow you to react to
information and make a rational decision
but in high-stress situations when
someone feels threatened or attacked the
amygdala has the power to completely
turn off the prefrontal cortex meaning
if you personally attack someone for
example by calling them stupid you have
scientifically removed their ability to
think critically about that conversation
and so being nice and go a long way
towards science education the second
thing that we can do to help bridge that
gap in scientific knowledge is to
remember that the people we talk to care
about different stuff than we do and so
we must bait the hook to suit the fish
this is a helpful role mostly used in
the marketing industry but science
educators can benefit from it as well
it basically means to focus on the
interests of your audience talk about
what they care about not what you think
they should care about an example
related to climate change on how not to
do this is polar bears now I don’t want
to say nobody cares about polar bears
but not that many people care about
polar bears and so we shouldn’t be using
them as a mascot for why everybody
should care about climate change instead
know your audience one of the best ways
to know your audience is to categorize
people and there are many ways to
categorize people but one of the most
popular ways and one of the most
powerful ways is political there’s this
idea that conservatives will never care
about climate change that’s not true
we’re just not generally good at
tailoring our message in a way that
speaks to them researchers of political
psychology have found that liberals tend
to value fairness equality protection
from harm and empathy while
conservatives more deeply value loyalty
purity patriotism
and respect for authority and so when
you’re talking to a conservative about
climate change don’t talk about saving
the planet right instead frame your
arguments about fighting climate change
as a way to make their land water and
air pure talk to them about how dirty
and disgusting America was before
environmental regulations
recent studies out of Stanford have
shown that conservatives are more likely
to support environmental policies when
they are framed to their values in this
way or talk about how climate change is
a national security threat putting our
military in danger president Trump’s
Secretary of Defense has said climate
change is impacting stability in areas
of the world where our troops are
operating today this is the case because
global warming adds heat to our planet
and that excess heat acts like a
powerful battery energizing our weather
events this means more powerful storms
and hurricanes longer droughts
record-breaking heat waves and sea level
rise that is changing the landscape here
and abroad last year President Trump
signed the National Defense
Authorization Act which specifically
cited climate change as a direct threat
to national security in the bill it
states as global temperatures rise
droughts and famines can lead to more
failed States which are breeding grounds
of extremist and terrorist organizations
the bill went on to point out the
dangers of sea level rise saying in the
Marshall Islands an Air Force radar
installation built on an asshole at a
cost of 1 billion dollars is projected
to be underwater within two decades in
the defense community climate change is
known as a national security risk
putting military lives and military
money and danger this message of climate
change will reach different people than
when we talk about polar bears bait the
hook to suit the fish today in our
country there is an unfortunate gap
between what the public believes and
what scientists know the first step
bridging that gap is to stop assuming
that those who don’t believe in the
science are stupid it is way more
nuanced than that and we will never
understand that nuance unless we choose
to be kind unless we choose to lead with
empathy and respect and learn what these
communities care about and so if you are
someone who wants to work to bridge this
gap in scientific knowledge you have to
ask yourself is your goal to be right or
is it to change people’s minds because
if all you want to be is right then go
ahead be snarky make fun of that person
call them stupid you may be right about
the science but you’ll be right in
isolation because that is a one-sided
conversation but if you want to be
persuasive if you want to make a
difference then you have to be nice you
have to realize that science
storytelling is not one-size-fits-all
because everybody cares about different
things essentially if you want to be an
agent of change don’t be stupid you have
to make the science nicer thank you [Applause]
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