Biotech Communications Workshop for Chinese Ministry of Agriculture and Triangle biotech professionals, Day 3 Presented by Jean Goodwin, NC State University Wednesday, 10/4/2017

1. Earning trust for science
in controversial contexts:
The problem and some solutions
Jean Goodwin
SAS Institute Distinguished Professor of Rhetoric
& Technical Communication
Department of Communication
jegoodwi@ncsu.edu

2. Do people who use skin cream get better?
Kahan, D. M., Peters, E., Dawson, E. C., & Slovic, P.
(2017). Motivated numeracy and enlightened self-
government. Behavioural Public Policy, 1(1), 54-86.

3. switch!

5. CRIME CRIME
CITIES
CITIES
BAN HANDGUNS
BAN HANDGUNS

7. answers partisans agree with

8. answers partisans agree with
answers partisans DISagree with

9. low numeracy—no polarization

10. high numeracy—high polarization

11. high numeracy—high polarization

12. high numeracy—high polarization

13. Humility is useful!

14. science
polarization
Motivated
Reasoning
“Tribalism”

15. Motivated
Reasoning
• biased search
• selective attention
• biased assimilation
• reactance
• backfire effects
Dillard, J. P., & Shen, L. (2005). On the nature of reactance and
its role in persuasive health communication. Communication
Monographs, 72(2), 144-168.
Lord, C. G., Ross, L., & Leper, M. R. (1979). Biased Assimilation
and Attitude Polarization: The Effects of Prior Theories on
Subsequently Considered Evidence. Journal of Personality &
Social Psychology, 11, 2098-2109.
Nyhan, B., & Reifler, J. (2010). When Corrections Fail: The
Persistence of Political Misperceptions. Political Behavior, 32(2),
303-330.
Taber, C. S., & Lodge, M. (2006). Motivated skepticism in the
evaluation of political beliefs. American Journal of Political
Science, 50(3), 755-769.

16. Motivated
Reasoning
“community science literacy”

17. Motivated
Reasoning
“Tribalism”
science
polarization

18. “Tribalism”
• group polarization

19. “Tribalism”
• social media bubbles
Superbowl
Election

20. “Tribalism”
• traditional media emphasizes
extremes
Election

21. “Tribalism”
• opinion leader cues
Election
allies
enemies

22. Barberá, P., Jost, J. T., Nagler, J., Tucker, J. A., & Bonneau, R.
(2015). Tweeting from left to right: Is online political
communication more than an echo chamber?. Psychological
science, 26(10), 1531-1542.
Boykoff, M. T. (2008). Lost in translation? United States
television news coverage of anthropogenic climate change,
1995–2004. Climatic Change, 86(1), 1-11.
Merkley, E., & Stecula, D. (2016). Party Elites, Organized
Skeptics, and the Media: Understanding How Americans
Polarized on Climate Change. Pacific Northwest Political Science
Association.(Unpublished manuscript).
Sunstein, C. R. (2002). The law of group polarization. Journal of
political philosophy, 10(1), 175-195.
“Tribalism”
• group polarization
• social media ”bubbles”
• traditional media emphasizing
extremes
• cues from opinion leaders

23. Motivated
Reasoning
“Tribalism”
science
polarization

24. Is he an expert?
Kahan, D. M., Jenkins‐Smith, H., & Braman, D. (2011). Cultural
cognition of scientific consensus. Journal of Risk Research,
14(2), 147-174.

25. Motivated
Reasoning
“Tribalism”
science
polarization
What is the way out?!?

26. Kahan, D. M., Landrum, A., Carpenter, K., Helft, L., & Hall
Jamieson, K. (2017). Science curiosity and political information
processing. Political Psychology, 38(S1), 179-199.
Curiosity

27. Trust

28. critical
thinking
about
science
TrustCuriosity

29. critical
thinking
about
science
Trust

30. critical
thinking
about
science
Trust

31. “GMO Technology and the
Future of Food”
25 March 2015
Iowa State University
Kevin Folta
Horticultural Sciences
University of Florida

32. Curiosity
Trust

33. Handout #2Curiosity

34. KF: [Prepared talk.]
HM: You have to stop right there, because that is
the biggest lie that there ever was…. KF: Okay,
so we'll come back to that.
HM: [Compares GMOs to Genghis Khan.]
KF: This is a great opportunity for us to have
a conversation, I'd love to be able to follow up
on you. You can be the first person at the end
when we talk about it. I'd love to
answer that question. We'll never go
through the whole night if we have
interruptions.
Curiosity Handout #2

35. KF: Let me go to the gentleman in back cause I
told him, I promised him he could be first. What's
your one big ringer right off the top?
HM: [>1 min statement]
KF: Okay do you have a question only? I'd love
to answer questions for other folks…Do you have
one that I can really jump or would you rather me
comment on what you've said?
HM: [More statement]
KF: Well that's true, alright so I'll address
that. When you use tissue culture to regenerate
plants….
Curiosity Handout #3

36. Curiosity
Lesson:
Folta treats everything his audience says as if it is
a curiosity-based question—
—even when it isn’t.
He:
• listens to it fully
• re-phrases it as a question
• praises it as a good question
• answers it

37. Trust Attempt #1:
Shared Values
Handout #1
“The big deal for us, whether we’re for or against this
technology, is that we’re on the same page…What
[do] we, as scientists and concerned people who are
interested in food, what do we really care about?”
• the environment
• sustainability of farms
• food for the needy
• consumer choices

38. Trust Attempt #1:
Shared Values
[Some GMO opponents express] a very strong anti-
corporate sentiment, which I understand. I mean, I
hate my bank, the people who sell me oil, the people
who sell me my cable tv and my cellphone bill, I
totally understand that the consolidation of industries
has caused problems in the way in our choices as
consumers, I get that. But when people still... The
solution isn't to damn the technology that corporations
use, 'cause it's the same technology I'd
like to use to solve problems, and I'm not Monsanto.
I'm Joe Science Schmoe.

39. [Some GMO opponents express] a very strong anti-
corporate sentiment, which I understand. I mean, I
hate my bank, the people who sell me oil, the people
who sell me my cable tv and my cellphone bill, I
totally understand that the consolidation of industries
has caused problems in the way in our choices as
consumers, I get that. But when people still... The
solution isn't to damn the technology that corporations
use, 'cause it's the same technology I'd
like to use to solve problems, and I'm not Monsanto.
I'm Joe Science Schmoe.
Trust Attempt #1:
Shared Values
Handout #1
“Cheap talk”

40. Trust
Lesson:
To earn trust, cheap talk is not enough.
Talk must be costly—it must demonstrate the
speaker’s commitment by showing his
willingness to sacrifice to help the audience.

41. Trust Attempt #2:
Commitment
Handout #5
And by the way, I neglected to mention, I'll
stick around for questions and answers as
long as you wanna go tonight. I have to be
on a plane at 6:00 AM in Des Moines, which
means I gotta be outta here by 4:00. So we'll
pull that off….
And I look forward to answering your questions here tonight… So I'm
staying around as long as you are, I'm glad to answer any of your
questions. Thank you very much.
Oh, I made it. My voice lasted the whole night. If you have any follow-
up questions, I would be really happy to talk to you anytime. Just
send me an email. I'm always pretty accessible. Most of all I really
appreciate you sticking around tonight. It was really nice of all of you to
do that. So thank you very much and have a really good night. Thank
you.
introduction
end of talk
end of event

42. Trust Attempt #2:
Commitment
Handout #5
And by the way, I neglected to mention, I'll
stick around for questions and answers as
long as you wanna go tonight. I have to be
on a plane at 6:00 AM in Des Moines, which
means I gotta be outta here by 4:00. So we'll
pull that off….
And I look forward to answering your questions here tonight… So I'm
staying around as long as you are, I'm glad to answer any of your
questions. Thank you very much.
Oh, I made it. My voice lasted the whole night. If you have any follow-
up questions, I would be really happy to talk to you anytime. Just
send me an email. I'm always pretty accessible. Most of all I really
appreciate you sticking around tonight. It was really nice of all of you to
do that. So thank you very much and have a really good night. Thank
you.
introduction
end of talk
end of event

43. Handout #6Trust

44. Trust
PW: I would like, I have a few questions, if that's
okay?
KF: Well, fire me your... We'll come back to the next
one. Let me go around and then I'll keep coming
til you're done. I'm happy to keep answering
questions.
[Listens for a long time.]
KF: Oh sure. I’d love to answer that. Yeah.
…
Attempt #2:
Commitment
Handout #6

45. Trust
Persistent Woman gets eight speaking turns, for a
total of nearly half an hour. Her “questions” include
most standard anti-GMO arguments:
This technology is just a silver bullet.
Most attempts to make GMOs are failure.
A journal article shows organic is better.
Patent protection allows seed companies to steal the indigenous
peoples’ heritage.
Bt from GMOs affects neighboring plants.
Organic farming can’t be reconciled with GMO farming.
Crop diversity is better than enrichment through GM.
GM enrichment could lead to vitamin poisoning.
GMO proponents (falsely) claim to be feeding the world.
Wildlife won’t eat GM corn
The technology is arrogant.
Attempt #2:
Commitment

46. Trust Attempt #2:
Commitment
Folta continues to invite her questions, continues to
listen without interrupting, and then replies as if
they were good questions
Oh, you're absolutely right. There's a threshold for danger for
everything, but…
Oh sure. No, I'd love to answer that. Yeah….
Yeah, that's true….
Absolutely. Yeah….
I'm with you. Oh, you're right. You're 100% right.

47. Trust Did it work?
KF: Is there a case by adding a gene to something
would be acceptable to you?...You don't have to
answer. I just always like to ask that….We could do
good things together…
PW: Your situation probably, I would support what
you're doing with the orange trees because of the...
KF: Thank you. And I understand...

48. Trust
KF [to PW]: Come here. Thank you very much for all
your questions. I appreciate you a lot. Thank you.
Handout #7At the very end.

49. Motivated
Reasoning
“Tribalism”
science
polarization
Summary!

50. critical
thinking
about
science
TrustCuriosity

51. critical
thinking
about
science
TrustCuriosity
Treat people
as if they are
curious.
Make your
talk costly by
committing
yourself
to engage—
make sacrifices.

52. It is simply not possible to expect the other in a
relationship to trust oneself, if one’s assumed
objective is to manage and control the other’s
response. The only thing which one can expect to
control, and to take responsibility for, is one’s own
trustworthiness—but this cannot encompass the
reaction of the other in the relationship.
Wynne, B., 1992: Misunderstood misunderstanding: Social identities and public uptake of science. In Misunderstanding
Science? The Public Reconstruction of Science and Technology, A. Irwin, and B. Wynne, Eds., Cambridge UP, 1-18.

53. [The wise] are good to good people and
they’re good to bad people. Power is
goodness.
They trust people of good faith
and they trust people of bad faith.
Power is trust.
Lao Tzu, 49
It is simply not possible to expect the other in a
relationship to trust oneself, if one’s assumed
objective is to manage and control the other’s
response. The only thing which one can expect to
control, and to take responsibility for, is one’s own
trustworthiness—but this cannot encompass the
reaction of the other in the relationship.
Wynne, B., 1992: Misunderstood misunderstanding: Social identities and public uptake of science. In Misunderstanding
Science? The Public Reconstruction of Science and Technology, A. Irwin, and B. Wynne, Eds., Cambridge UP, 1-18.