“Splainin” Health and Nutrition Science to a Doubtful Public

Abstract

It is hardly a secret that the health, nutrition, and other science communication environment has over the past few years become ever-more problematic. The authors of the present article have repeatedly documented the challenges posed to public understanding of science by the rise of social media and other internet communication “tools” and the diminishing influence of such media as journals, legacy news organizations, and other traditional conduits of scientific information. Various remedies have been proposed for facilitating greater public appreciation and comprehension of science. In the current article, the authors offer a bold, if not surprising, new proposal: initiate or broaden public exposure to the true nature of the scientific method/process. They suggest that health and science communicators not hold back in extolling the noisy and highly contentious process by which hypotheses are explored and eventually accepted or rejected. If communicators, they argue, convince audiences of the messy, even argumentative, way in which science actually evolves, it may be easier to encourage a greater open-mindedness toward previously unpopular, even uncomprehended, dreaded, or despised, scientific ideas. The issue is of paramount importance, especially now, as keeping the public focus on science, not individual scientists, is critical.