If scientists want the public to understand and benefit from their research, they need to change the way they talk about it, a new study finds.
Scientific language — or jargon — turns people off to both research findings and science in general, according to the study, published in January in the Journal of Language and Social Psychology.
Researchers asked 650 adults to read a few paragraphs about self-driving cars, surgical robots and 3D-printing and then take a survey. About half of the participants had passages that contained scientific language, acronyms and jargon, while half had passages written in plain language.
Study participants who read the information that included jargon not only reported that they did not understand it, they were also more likely to say that they felt negatively about their understanding of and interest in science.
“I know that a potential logical conclusion of this next statement is not great — but we are way too focused on being accurate when we talk about these complicated topics,” Hillary Shulman, PhD, MA, lead author of the study, told The Nation’s Health.
According to Shulman, an assistant professor of communications at Ohio State University, the tendency among researchers to use the most specific language possible can have a negative impact on general readers.
“We feel automatically whether or not something is easy or difficult for us to understand,” she said. “And we distance ourselves when we encounter things that aren’t meant for us.”
Even if an easy-to-read explanation or definition is provided, the damage is done is soon as a general reader encounters jargon. In the study, half of the people who were given the jargon-filled passages were also given a mouse-over tool to show a word’s definition. It did not improve their understanding of the material, the researchers found.
“Giving out definitions was absolutely useless,” Shulman said. “As soon as jargon was introduced, people disengaged. They would say ‘I don’t like this.’”
The public health field has been working in recent decades to find ways to combat jargon and more clearly convey health information to the public. At the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the agency’s Clear Communication Index helps public health professionals plan and assess public communication materials so that they can be easily understood. CDC has also created “Everyday Words for Public Health Communication” which alphabetically lists common public health terms and then explains how to translate them into plain language.
Although complicated scientific terms can be a turn-off to general readers, that does not mean that science should always be conveyed at a basic reading level. When used for an expert audience, jargon can accurately relay complex ideas and advance scientific understanding, according to Shulman. It can also show authority and reinforce expertise.
“A general audience does not pick up on nuances in the same way that researchers do,” she said. “And often we prioritize being as accurate as possible over being easy and able to be understood.”
For more information on the study, visit https://journals.sagepub.com/home/jls.
- Copyright The Nation’s Health, American Public Health Association
