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Science Communication — Balancing Pride and Humility
8 tips for improvement
Scientific conclusions are increasingly seen as ‘just another opinion’. The reasons for this erosion of trust include the dominance of the economic paradigm, the individualisation of sense-making and the democratisation of (access to) information. High quality Science Communication, however, can restore trust in science.
Erosion of trust
For years, trust in institutions such as government, business and media has been declining worldwide. During this same period, the definitions of wealth and value have become strictly economic, even monetary. This simplification of what drives human happiness has been exacerbated by governments looking to business for a better understanding of how to run human affairs. Ironically, that is precisely what business still has to figure out.
It is not so hard to understand why governments believed the lessons could be found in business. As Thomas Piketty said in 2014, during his visit to the Dutch Parliament (and I paraphrase): companies are rich, while governments are poor. Surely, the inference is that business must be better able to generate wealth than governments?
As the balance of power between government and business was slowly being decided in favour of business…
