(Science Daily) When scientists and others use their specialized jargon terms while communicating with the general public, the effects are much worse than just making what they’re saying hard to understand.
Related Truth Sharing Techniques: How to Succeed at Sharing Ideas with People in Difficult Conversations
by Staff Writer, February 12th, 2020
In a new study, people exposed to jargon when reading about subjects like self-driving cars and surgical robots later said they were less interested in science than others who read about the same topics, but without the use of specialized terms.
They were also less likely to think they were good at science, felt less informed about science and felt less qualified to discuss science topics.
Crucially, it made no difference if the jargon terms — like “vigilance decrement” and “laparoscopy” — were defined in the text: Even when the terms were defined, readers still felt just as disengaged as readers who read jargon that wasn’t explained.
The problem is that the mere presence of jargon sends a discouraging message to readers, said Hillary Shulman, lead author of the study and assistant professor of communication at The Ohio State University.
“The use of difficult, specialized words are a signal that tells people that they don’t belong,” Shulman said.
“You can tell them what the terms mean, but it doesn’t matter. They already feel like that this message isn’t for them.”
This new study is the latest in a series by Shulman and her colleagues that shows how complex language in politics, as well as science, can lead people to tune out.
“Politics is where I started,” Shulman said.
“We have found that when you use more colloquial language when talking to people about issues like immigration policy, they report more interest in politics, more ability to understand political information and more confidence in their political opinions.”
Shulman and colleagues have now studied language and public engagement involving about 20 different political and science topics, all with the same results.
Book How Do We Know?: An Introduction to Epistemology (The Philosophy of Discernment)
“We can get citizens to engage with complex political and scientific issues if we communicate to them in language that they understand,” she said.
The latest study was published online recently in the Journal of Language and Social Psychology and will appear in a future print edition.
In the study, 650 adults participated online. They read a paragraph about each of three science and technology topics: self-driving cars, surgical robots and 3D bio-printing.
About half of them read versions of the paragraphs with no jargon and half read versions with jargon.
For example, one of the sentences in the high-jargon version of the surgical robots paragraph read: “This system works because of AI integration through motion scaling and tremor reduction.”
The no-jargon version of that same sentence read: “This system works because of programming that makes the robot’s movements more precise and less shaky.”
Half of the people who read the high-jargon versions were also offered the opportunity to see the jargon terms defined. When they held their computer mouse over an underlined jargon term, a text box appeared with the definition — the exact language used in the no-jargon version.
After reading each paragraph, participants rated how easy it was to read.
After they read all three paragraphs, participants completed a variety of measures examining issues like their interest in science and how much they thought they knew about science.
As expected, participants who read the high-jargon paragraphs thought they were more difficult to read than did those who read the no-jargon descriptions — even if they had the definitions available to them.
“What we found is that giving people definitions didn’t matter at all — it had no effect on how difficult they thought the reading was,” Shulman said.
Being exposed to jargon had a variety of negative effects on readers, the study showed.
“Exposure to jargon led people to report things like ‘I’m not really good at science,’ ‘I’m not interested in learning about science,’ and ‘I’m not well qualified to participate in science discussions,'” Shulman said.
But people who read no-jargon versions felt more empowered.
“They were more likely to say they understood what they read because they were a science kind of person, that they liked science and considered themselves knowledgeable.”
There’s an even darker side, though, to how people react when they are exposed to jargon-filled explanations of science.
In an earlier study with these same participants, published in the journal Public Understanding of Science, the researchers found that reading jargon led people to not believe the science.
“When you have a difficult time processing the jargon, you start to counter-argue. You don’t like what you’re reading. But when it is easier to read, you are more persuaded and you’re more likely to support these technologies,” she said.
Book Remote Viewing: The Complete User’s Manual for Coordinate Remote Viewing
“You can see how important it is to communicate clearly when you’re talking about complex science subjects like climate change or vaccines.”
Shulman said that the use of jargon is appropriate with scientific audiences. But scientists and science communicators who want to communicate with the public need to modify their language, beginning with eliminating jargon.
“Too many people think that if they just define their terms, everything is set. But this work shows that is not the case.”
Story Source:
Materials provided by Ohio State University. Original written by Jeff Grabmeier. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.
Journal Reference:
- Hillary C. Shulman, Graham N. Dixon, Olivia M. Bullock, Daniel Colón Amill. The Effects of Jargon on Processing Fluency, Self-Perceptions, and Scientific Engagement. Journal of Language and Social Psychology, 2020; 0261927X2090217 DOI: 10.1177/0261927X20902177
Stillness in the Storm Editor: Why did we post this?
Science is the pursuit of objective truth. Objective truth is the foundation of philosophic exploration, a critical aspect of personal evolution and the attainment of spiritual values and growth. The preceding information discusses science with regard to development, method, or technique. This is helpful to understand because is a sense everyone is a scientist due to the fact they seek to understand their reality through the powers of observation and modeling. With the power of effective imaging in hand—knowledge acquisition—one can do anything they set their mind to, provided it is possible.
– Justin
Not sure how to make sense of this? Want to learn how to discern like a pro? Read this essential guide to discernment, analysis of claims, and understanding the truth in a world of deception: 4 Key Steps of Discernment – Advanced Truth-Seeking Tools.
Stillness in the Storm Editor’s note: Did you find a spelling error or grammatical mistake? Send an email to [email protected], with the error and suggested correction, along with the headline and url. Do you think this article needs an update? Or do you just have some feedback? Send us an email at [email protected]. Thank you for reading.
Source:
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/02/200212084357.htm
Right on. People lose interest in what they are reading when they go by too many words that are misunderstood. That’s why math is a stumbling block to the early student who has to learn all the math jargon and the education facility is not sufficient enough to be able to get it done well.
Professor’s in college may be really brilliant people and know a lot of technical “jargon”, but they are not brilliant enough to be able to communicate to others what they know because they do not break down the language to a lower level of understanding for the common man and woman. The professor wants to use the “jargon” because they don’t know how to communicate (brilliant as they may be) – plainly just don’t realize that others won’t understand what they are talking about it seems, or because they are full-of-themselves and want to seem more important than they really are by showing off all of the “jargon”.
I wish The Secret Life of Plants were re-written in common man language. I loved the book, but had to look up more words than any other book in my life in order to get through it alive (with complete comprehension, and without any accompanying dullness, sleepiness, or anxiety from going past misunderstood words. I only took the amount of effort I did in order to get through the book because the writers were brilliant in the subject matter, and it was a subject I was very interested in learning more about.
* Just a few recommendations come to mind:
1. Look up words where the subject matter is sufficiently important that one retain the data.
2. Make sure the correct definition that fits the context it is being used is being looked up.
3. Use a simple dictionary so that one is not looking up word after word in order to understand what the dictionary is defining.
4. Use college dictionary as last resort (unless you are at that level, or above that level, of language academia.)
5. Looking up derivations can be very enlightening in learning a language. It can help when encountering other words of similar origins.