#iCOMOS2016

STORYTELLING for Effective Science Communication & Policy

UMWELT The world as it is experienced

risk = OMG! x WTF!

“Research suggests that narrative communication is encoded using a unique cognitive pathway”

stories are: • more interesting • more understandable • more believable • more persuasive

Dahlstrom & Ho (2012). Ethical considerations of using narrative to communicate science. Science Communication, 592–617.

Photo by Adrienne Mathiowitz © 2015 The Story Collider

© Nikki Gilmore

THE STORY SPINE • Once upon a time... and every day… • But, one day... • Because of that... • Because of that... • Because of that... • Until, finally... • And, ever since then...

From Addams, How to Improvise a Full-Length Play

THE SET-UP CONFRONTATION RESOLUTION

STORY JARGON• PLOT - the order things happen • STRUCTURE - the order you tell them

• MACGUFFIN - what the story is about • THEME - what the story is REALLY about

STRUCTURE 101•what is the BEGINNING? •what is the END? •what are the STAKES? •what CHANGED?

storystoryteller audience

audiencestorystoryteller storystoryteller audience

story

audiencestoryteller

authenticity

1) Stephens et al. (2010) Speaker–listener neural coupling underlies successful communication. PNAS 107(32):14425-14430

2) Hasson et al. (2012) Brain-to-brain coupling: a mechanism for creating and sharing a social world. Trends in Cognitive Science. 16(2):114-121

credibility competence + goodwill + trustworthiness

In the real world, inferences can have a very powerful

effect on people. Consider the following example provided

by Seifert (2002). The nightly news presents a story about

a family of four found dead in their home. The newscaster

mentions that the family had dined at a local restaurant the

night before. A few days later the same newscaster pro-

vides an update on the story and announces that the medi-

cal examiner on the case concluded that the family died

from carbon monoxide poisoning. However, months later

the local restaurant goes out of business. In this example,

the restaurant likely went out of business because people

inferred that the family in the news died from food poison-

ing at the restaurant, even though there was a retraction

indicating that the family died from carbon monoxide poi-

soning. This everyday example demonstrates the power-

ful effect that inferences have on people—so powerful, in

fact, that they influence people’s behavior even in the face

of counterinformation.

Laboratory research shows that younger adults have a

difficult time forgetting inferences that they make after

reading a passage, even though they can recall that the

original information had been corrected (see Seifert,

2002, for a review). Note that much research has been

done to examine the ability of participants to form infer-

ences (i.e., Harris, Sardarpoor-Bascom, & Meyer, 1989;

Lea, Mulligan, & Walton, 2005; Suh & Trabasso, 1993),

but the present investigation focuses, in particular, on the

phenomenon in which once inferences are formed, par-

ticipants have difficulty forgetting their inferences even

in the face of counterinformation. The lasting effects of

inferences on memory have been studied using a series

of on-the-scene news reports (Wilkes & Leatherbarrow,

1988) in which a piece of information is retracted. When

participants were asked to answer questions about the

news reports, the results showed that they answered the

questions using inferences based on the original incor-

rect information, even though they could recall the pres-

ence of the subsequent correction. Several studies have

demonstrated the robustness of this effect (Johnson &

Seifert, 1994, 1999; Wilkes & Reynolds, 1999). Despite

the robustness and importance of this effect, it is not well

understood. Also, it is surprising that older adults have

not been examined with this paradigm, for practical and

theoretical reasons.There are reasons to predict that older adults would be

more susceptible to the continued influence of inference

than would younger adults. One reason why older adults

may be more susceptible than younger adults is because

research in the false memory literature shows that older

adults are misled by false information far more often than

are younger adults. A variety of paradigms have shown that

older adults show more false memories than do younger

adults, including an eyewitness testimony paradigm (e.g.,

Cohen & Faulkner, 1989; LaVoie, Mertz, & Richmond,

2007; Roediger & Geraci, 2007), a word associates, or

the Deese/Roediger–McDermott (DRM), paradigm (e.g.,

Balota et al., 1999; McCabe & Smith, 2002; Watson, Mc-

Dermott, & Balota, 2004) and a paradigm using pragmatic

inferences (McDermott & Chan, 2006). The pragmatic in-

ferences paradigm is perhaps most relevant for the present

study, because research in which this paradigm has been

used has shown that, as compared with younger adults,

older adults are more likely to incorrectly recall words,

such as broke, that were only inferred from the veridical

73 © 2010 The Psychonomic Society, Inc.

The persistence of inferences in memory

for younger and older adults: Remembering

facts and believing inferences

JIMMEKA J. GUILLORY AND LISA GERACI

Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas

Research shows that younger adults have difficulty forgetting inferences that they make after reading a pas-

sage, even if the information that the inferences are based on is later shown to be untrue. The present study ex-

amined the effects of these inferences on memory in the lab and tested whether older adults, like younger adults,

are influenced by the lingering effects of false inferences. In addition, this study examined the nature of these in-

ferences, by examining younger and older adults’ subjective experiences and confidence associated with factual

recall and incorrect inference recall. The results showed that younger and older adults were equally susceptible to

the continued influence of inferences. Both younger and older adults tended to remember facts from the stories

but to believe their inferences, although confidence judgments did not differ for facts and inferences.

Psychonomic Bulletin & Review

2010, 17 (1), 73-81doi:10.3758/PBR.17.1.73

J. J. Guillory, jguillory@psych.tamu.edu

ORIGINAL ARTICLE

The effect of physicians’ body weight on patient attitudes:implications for physician selection, trustand adherence to medical adviceRM Puhl, JA Gold, J Luedicke and JA DePierre

BACKGROUND: Research has documented negative stigma by health providers toward overweight and obese patients, but it isunknown whether physicians themselves are vulnerable to weight bias from patients.PURPOSE: This study assessed public perceptions of normal weight, overweight or obese physicians to identify how physicians’body weight affects patients’ selection, trust and willingness to follow the medical advice of providers.METHODS: An online sample of 358 adults were randomly assigned to one of three survey conditions in which they completed aquestionnaire assessing their perceptions of physicians who were described as normal weight, overweight or obese. Participantsalso completed a measure of explicit weight bias (Fat Phobia Scale) to determine whether antifat attitudes are associated withweight-related perceptions of physicians.RESULTS: Respondents reported more mistrust of physicians who are overweight or obese, were less inclined to follow theirmedical advice, and were more likely to change providers if the physician was perceived to be overweight or obese, compared tonormal-weight physicians who elicited significantly more favorable reactions. These weight biases remained present regardless ofparticipants’ own body weight. Inspection of interaction effects revealed opposing effects of weight bias between the obese/overweight and normal-weight physician conditions. Stronger weight bias led to higher trust, more compassion, more inclination tofollow advice, and less inclination to change doctors when the physician was presented as normal weight. In contrast, strongerweight bias led to less trust, less compassion, less inclination to follow advice and higher inclination to change doctors when thephysician was presented as obese.CONCLUSIONS: This study suggests that providers perceived to be overweight or obese may be vulnerable to biased attitudesfrom patients, and that providers’ excess weight may negatively affect patients’ perceptions of their credibility, level of trust andinclination to follow medical advice.

International Journal of Obesity (2013) 37, 1415–1421; doi:10.1038/ijo.2013.33; published online 19 March 2013Keywords: stigma; bias; physician

INTRODUCTIONStigma toward obese persons is pervasive in North America.Obese individuals are vulnerable to harmful weight-basedstereotypes, including perceptions that they are lazy, lacking inwillpower, indisciplined and unintelligent.1,2 These stereotypesgive way to stigma, prejudice and discrimination in multipledomains of living, including the workplace, health-care facilities,educational institutions, the mass media and even in closeinterpersonal relationships.1,3

Of concern, these negative stereotypes have emerged consis-tently in the health-care setting, with multiple studies document-ing biased attitudes toward obese patients by physicians, nursesand other health-care professionals.4–9 Although considerableresearch has illustrated negative stigma by physicians towardoverweight and obese patients (see Puhl and Heuer1 for areview),1 little research to date has examined whether physiciansthemselves could be vulnerable to weight bias from patients.That is, to what degree do patients hold stigmatizing attitudestoward physicians who are overweight or obese? Given thattwo-thirds of American adults are either overweight or obese,10

many health care providers also struggle with overweight andobesity11 and may be perceived differently by their patientscompared to thinner physicians.This notable gap in research is important to address for severalreasons. The provider–patient relationship is pivotal for riskreduction, disease prevention and ultimately disease outcomesfor the patient.12 When addressing health behaviors like smoking,exercise, diet and alcohol usage, the provider–patient interactionis key for identifying risk factors and disease, and for counselingpatients on appropriate treatment actions.13 Yet, the degreeto which these interactions are effective and successful could berelated to actual or perceived health-related behaviors of doctorsthemselves. For example, evidence suggests that physicians withlower resting heart rates are more likely to counsel their patientson exercise14 and non-smoking physicians are more likely tocounsel their patients on smoking cessation.15 Some researchshows that health professionals of a ‘normal weight’ are moreconfident in their weight management practices, perceive fewerbarriers to weight management for their patients, and have morepositive expectations for patient health outcomes.16 Similarly, aRudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA. Correspondence: Dr RM Puhl, Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity, Yale University, 309

Edwards Street, New Haven, CT 06511, USA.E-mail: rebecca.puhl@yale.eduReceived 19 November 2012; revised 9 January 2013; accepted 16 January 2013; published online 19 March 2013

International Journal of Obesity (2013) 37, 1415–1421& 2013 Macmillan Publishers Limited All rights reserved 0307-0565/13www.nature.com/ijo

“We found that people remember facts but believe inferences.“

Guillory&Geraci(2010)PsychonomicBulletin&ReviewPuhletal(2013)InternationalJournalofObesity

RESEARCH ARTICLE

Interactions among Collective SpectatorsFacilitate Eyeblink SynchronizationRyota Nomura1*, Yingzong Liang2, Takeshi Okada1

1 Department of Education, The University of Tokyo, 7-3-1, Hongo, Bunkyo ward, Tokyo, Japan, 2 GraduateSchool of Engineering, The University of Tokyo, 7-3-1, Hongo, Bunkyo ward, Tokyo, Japan

* nomuraryota@gmail.com

AbstractWhereas the entrainment of movements and aspirations among audience members hasbeen known as a basis of collective excitement in the theater, the role of the entrainment ofcognitive processes among audience members is still unclear. In the current study, temporalpatterns of the audience’s attention were observed using eyeblink responses. To determinethe effect of interactions among audience members on cognitive entrainment, as well as itsdirection (attractive or repulsive), the eyeblink synchronization of the following two groupswere compared: (1) the experimental condition, where the audience members (seven fre-quent viewers and seven first-time viewers) viewed live performances in situ, and (2) thecontrol condition, where the audience members (15 frequent viewers and 15 first-time view-ers) viewed videotaped performances in individual experimental settings (results reported inprevious study.) The results of this study demonstrated that the mean values of a measure ofasynchrony (i.e.,D interval) were much lower for the experimental condition than for the controlcondition. Frequent viewers had a moderate attractive effect that increased as the story pro-gressed, while a strong attractive effect was observed throughout the story for first-time view-ers. The attractive effect of interactions among a group of spectators was discussed from theviewpoint of cognitive and somatic entrainment in live performances.

IntroductionWhat makes a live performance so exciting? Multiple interactions within a group of spectatorsare likely a dominant factor. In recent years, many researchers have reported the entrainmentof human behaviors such as body movement [1] or respiratory rhythms [2] during interper-sonal communications. Behaviors of participants lead to particular patterns due to the repeti-tive interactions among participants. This somatic entrainment or synchronization is known asa basis of the shared group affect [3]. Although previous studies have paid little attention to thecognitive aspect of entrainment in live performances, some have suggested that spectatorsshare a similar understanding of the meaning of the performance. This shared understandingcan influence affinity or temporal cohesion, leading to enthusiasm and exhilaration by audi-ence members during live performances. In actual theaters, however, it remains unclear howinteractions among audience members affect cognitive entrainment. The purpose of the

PLOSONE | DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0140774 October 19, 2015 1 / 9

OPEN ACCESS

Citation: Nomura R, Liang Y, Okada T (2015)Interactions among Collective Spectators FacilitateEyeblink Synchronization. PLoS ONE 10(10):e0140774. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0140774

Editor: Jun Ma, Lanzhou University of Technology,CHINA

Received: July 23, 2015

Accepted: September 30, 2015

Published: October 19, 2015

Copyright: © 2015 Nomura et al. This is an openaccess article distributed under the terms of theCreative Commons Attribution License, which permitsunrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in anymedium, provided the original author and source arecredited.

Data Availability Statement: All relevant data arewithin the paper and its Supporting Information files.

Funding: Support was provided by the JapanSociety for the Promotion of Science, Grant-in-Aid forJapan Society for the Promotion of Science Fellows#2408089 to RN [https://kaken.nii.ac.jp/d/p/12J08089.en.html] and the Japan Society for the Promotion ofScience, Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research(A)#24243062 to TO [https://kaken.nii.ac.jp/d/p/24243062.en.html]. The funders had no role in studydesign, data collection and analysis, decision topublish, or preparation of the manuscript.

ORIGINAL RESEARCHpublished: 20 April 2015

doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00447

Edited by:Alain Morin,

Mount Royal University, Canada

Reviewed by:Claudio Gentili,

Università di Pisa, ItalyChristian Dieter Schunn,

University of Pittsburgh, USA

*Correspondence:Ryota Nomura,

Faculty of Education, the Universityof Tokyo, 7-3-1, Hongo, Bunkyo

Ward, Tokyo 113-0033, Japannomuraryota@gmail.com

Specialty section:This article was submitted to

Cognitive Science, a section of thejournal Frontiers in Psychology

Received: 27 October 2014Accepted: 30 March 2015

Published: 20 April 2015

Citation:Nomura R, Hino K, Shimazu M,

Liang Y and Okada T (2015)Emotionally excited eyeblink-rate

variability predicts an experience oftransportation into the narrative world.

Front. Psychol. 6:447.doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00447

Emotionally excited eyeblink-ratevariability predicts an experience oftransportation into the narrativeworldRyota Nomura1*, Kojun Hino2, Makoto Shimazu3, Yingzong Liang4 and Takeshi Okada1

1 Faculty of Education, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan, 2 College of Arts and Sciences, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo,Japan, 3 Graduate School of Information Science and Technology, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan, 4 Graduate Schoolof Engineering, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan

Collective spectator communications such as oral presentations, movies, andstorytelling performances are ubiquitous in human culture. This study investigated theeffects of past viewing experiences and differences in expressive performance on anaudience’s transportive experience into a created world of a storytelling performance.In the experiment, 60 participants (mean age = 34.12 years, SD = 13.18 years,range 18–63 years) were assigned to watch one of two videotaped performancesthat were played (1) in an orthodox way for frequent viewers and (2) in a modifiedway aimed at easier comprehension for first-time viewers. Eyeblink synchronizationamong participants was quantified by employing distance-based measurements ofspike trains, Dspike and Dinterval (Victor and Purpura, 1997). The results indicated thateven non-familiar participants’ eyeblinks were synchronized as the story progressedand that the effect of the viewing experience on transportation was weak. Rather, theresults of a multiple regression analysis demonstrated that the degrees of transportationcould be predicted by a retrospectively reported humor experience and higher real-timevariability (i.e., logarithmic transformed SD) of inter blink intervals during a performanceviewing. The results are discussed from the viewpoint in which the extent of eyeblinksynchronization and eyeblink-rate variability acts as an index of the inner experience ofaudience members.

Keywords: eyeblink-rate variability, eyeblink synchronization, transportation, viewing experience, Rakugo, expert

Introduction

Collective spectator communications such as oral presentations, movies, and storytelling per-formances are ubiquitous in human culture. Spectators who share time and space frequentlyinvolve their minds and bodies in fascinating performances. Some spectators would describetheir experience as being ‘carried away’ by the story. This engrossing temporal experience isknown as “transportation into the narrative world” (Sestir and Green, 2010). In a previous study,researchers summarized facilitators of narrative transportation (Van Laer et al., 2014). For instance,Van Laer et al. (2014, p. 803) and pointed out that stories containing more identifiable charac-ters to audience members, plotlines that storytelling audiences can imagine, and verisimilitudeall increase the likelihood that a narrative transportation will occur. In addition, an audience

Frontiers in Psychology | www.frontiersin.org 1 April 2015 | Volume 6 | Article 447

Science Communication34(5) 592 –617

© 2012 SAGE PublicationsReprints and permission:

sagepub.com/journalsPermissions.navDOI: 10.1177/1075547012454597

http://scx.sagepub.com

454597 SCX34510.1177/1075547012454597Science CommunicationDahlstrom and Ho© 2011 SAGE Publications

Reprints and permission: http://www.sagepub.com/journalsPermissions.nav

1Iowa State University, Ames, USA2Nanyang Technological University, Singapore

Corresponding Author:Michael F. Dahlstrom, Greenlee School of Journalism and Communication, Iowa State University, 215 Hamilton Hall, Ames, IA 50010, USA Email: mfd@iastate.edu

Ethical Considerations of Using Narrative to Communicate Science

Michael F. Dahlstrom1 and Shirley S. Ho2

AbstractThis article discusses three ethical considerations science communicators face when considering narrative as a communication technique for science policy contexts: (a) What is the underlying purpose of using narrative: com-prehension or persuasion? (b) What are the appropriate levels of accuracy to maintain? (c) Should narrative be used at all? These considerations intersect with perceptions of the appropriate roles of communication and of scien-tists within democracy. By providing a clearer articulation of these ethical considerations, the authors hope that narrative can become a more useful communication technique toward informed science policy decisions.

Keywordsscience, communication, narrative, policy, ethics

There is a growing sense that scientific information is not contributing what it should to controversial science policy. Social controversies surrounding topics such as climate change, evolution, and vaccinations are often claimed to exemplify either an ignorance of scientific data or its outright rejection (Baker, 2008; Forrest, 2001; Mooney, 2005; Zimmer, 2011). Science can

at UNIV WASHINGTON LIBRARIES on July 3, 2015scx.sagepub.comDownloaded from

START WHERE YOU ARE USE WHAT YOU HAVE DO WHAT YOU CAN

- ARTHUR ASHE

Tell all the truth but tell it slant — Success in Circuit lies Too bright for our infirm Delight The Truth's superb surprise As Lightning to the Children eased With explanation kind The Truth must dazzle gradually Or every man be blind —

Poem 1263 Emily Dickinson