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To frame, or not to frame? Re: "The future of public engagement,"1 the first thing scientists need to do is abandon all talk of tentativeness, paradigms, and social construct when talking to the public about science. This model of science is appropriate in certain circles, but I see not a shred of evidence that it has improved public scientific literacy, and [I see] a great deal of evidence that it has been used by charlatans to dismiss scientific findings or push bogus alternativ

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Re: "The future of public engagement,"1 the first thing scientists need to do is abandon all talk of tentativeness, paradigms, and social construct when talking to the public about science. This model of science is appropriate in certain circles, but I see not a shred of evidence that it has improved public scientific literacy, and [I see] a great deal of evidence that it has been used by charlatans to dismiss scientific findings or push bogus alternatives. Like it or not, the vast majority of the public thinks in concrete, black and white terms. Framing discussions in any other way amounts simply to disregarding all the published literature in psychology.

Steven Dutch
University of Wisconsin, Green Bay dutchs@uwgb.edu

I come from a science background (medicine) and I also work in the media, developing, writing, and producing science and medical TV. It's not just the public who isn't very interested in ...

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