The importance of being earnest: Leveraging your passion to promote effective science communication

This past weekend, I was at Phoenix Fan Fusion: geeking out about my favorite fandoms, learning about the craft of writing, and sharing my love of science with my fellow nerds.

Thanks to RealTime STEAM (a non-profit in the Phoenix metro area that specializes in science engagement), over a hundred of of my fellow scientists descended on the convention center to share our craft in three days' worth of panels. I now get to add to my CV that I was an invited speaker in a panel on hydrology in Tolkien's Middle Earth - a truly bizarre sentence, when taken out of context. (My team also cleaned house during Tolkien trivia - most of them were on my panel that afternoon!).

It was a slightly surreal experience, but I also got to feel the rush of adrenaline and joy that I felt like I'd lost somewhere around my second year of graduate school. In the weeds of creating hydraulic gradelines and hydrologic models, I'd forgotten why I'd become so passionate about water - and sustainability - in the first place.

Sitting on the stage talking about the role that water plays in landscapes - the role it plays in cultures and histories - I found that spark again.

Warmth versus competence

Social psychology indicates that group stereotypes and interpersonal impressions hinge on two factors: warmth and competence.

Warmth is all about intention. How do people perceive what you want to achieve in the world? Do they believe that your values align with or against theirs?

Competence is about your perceived ability to follow through on those intentions. How good are you at what you do? What are the external signifiers of that capability (like advanced degrees)?

As scientists (and especially as engineers), we lionize competence. Our models and analytical frameworks are designed to promote testability and replicability: we prize efficiency and results-driven paradigms. Scientists are stereotypically "cold". And because our emphasis as a community has been for so long on the product - the end result - we often don't respect or value individual passion and warmth.

It might come as something of a shock to realize that of those two interpersonal factors, warmth, not competence, is the primary motivator of trust. Scientists may be respected, but they risk losing public trust... and a significant proportion of a potential young STEAM workforce.

Finding your "why"

So what can we do about this as a field?

One of the most important things we can do as scientists is embracing our passion for our field with our whole self. What do you enjoy doing alongside you science? How does your work fit into that new context?

Being able to adapt your work to the "silliness" of comic cons, pop culture, and story-telling does not make it "lesser". In fact, being able to distill a complex topic down to its core ideas and ideals will both make you a better communicator and a better researcher. And being visible as a scientist and role model at these events shows the public that scientists are people too - capable of warmth and empathy, as well as the competence that is signified by our degrees.

From a personal standpoint, it's also important to understand (and remember) why you chose your discipline in the first place. What is your mission - the driving force that gives you joy, and makes you want to keep doing what you're doing?

For me, that mission is understanding how people interact with the natural world - how they have always interacted with it - and how we can use that understanding to more equitably and sustainably allocated our remaining natural resources. I care about why people make the choices that they do around technology, and how scientists can work together with communities to ensure that technology development is just. Most importantly, I want to be able to give people the science and data tools they need to tell their own stories about their relationship between their communities and the environment around them.

On my other panel, I got to share my thoughts on global water infrastructure, and the new suite of technologies and policies that will be needed to ensure that water is equitably accessible to all. Like the hydrology panel, this was a panel about stories and perception - specifically how simple statistical datapoints can obscure broader environmental justice issues.

Getting to speak at a comic con was fun. But more than that, it allowed me to reach an audience I wouldn't have normally gotten a chance to talk to. In doing so, it allowed me a chance to reconnect with my roots as a scientist - as someone with both the talent to make change in the world and the heart to ensure that change is for the better.