Want people to care about climate change? Skip the jargon. | Grist

Want people to care about climate change? Skip the jargon

“The only thing that’s dumb is speaking to people in language that they don’t understand.”

Kate Yoder writes in Grist.org​:

"Forget 'dumbing down.' Using more common language is 'smartening up,' said Susan Joy Hassol, director of the nonprofit science outreach group Climate Communication in North Carolina, who coaches scientists and journalists to write and speak more conversationally. 'The only thing that’s dumb,' Hassol said, 'is speaking to people in language that they don’t understand.'

"Jargon is good way to kill someone’s interest in a particular topic, according to research published this month in PLOS ONE, a science and medicine journal. Readers take it as a sign that the material isn’t for them.

"For the study at Ohio State University, 650 people read paragraphs about self-driving cars, surgical robots, and 3D bioprinting online. Half of them read paragraphs filled with cringe-worthy phrases (like 'AI integration'), while the other half read phrases translated into plain English (make that 'programming'). After they were finished, those subjected to obscure words said they felt less interested in science — even when those words were defined.

"When something is easy to read, people find they want to learn more about the subject, said Hillary Shulman, lead author of the study and an assistant professor of communication at Ohio State. Her research has shown that people are more receptive to information written in plain old print instead of cursive, just because it’s easier to process. Avoiding jargon matters, she said, for anyone who wants to get their message to a broad audience. ..."