Supercommunicator

Learning About Your Audience

Audience research, says Jay Labov, senior advisor for education and communication at the National Academy of Sciences, is critical in helping scientists shape important outreach strategies. The first experiment in using this research came as a team of scientists was developing a publication on the often-thorny subject of evolution. “Evolutionary biologists are fascinated with Darwin's finches,” said Labov. “The American public…not so much.” When asked about Darwin's finches, those famous Galapagos Islands birds that played such an important role in the inception of Darwin's theory of natural selection, polling subjects ...