Communication is nearly omnipresent – heck, even when we’re not talking, most of us have that voice in our head, and even when we’re doomscrolling, we’re actually reading words. Given its ubiquity, communication is a lever that we can pull to make the world a slightly better place. Hey, come to think of it, peace treaties are typically negotiated through talking, but world peace is currently a tad beyond the scope of this initiative.
The point of Communication Science for the Public Good is to try to translate (sorry, couldn’t resist using that word) communication science research into concrete, real-world benefits for people and communities.
Communication Science for the Public Good will be a continuously evolving initiative, but for the time being, there will be three primary prongs: Newsletter, Conversations, and Outreach. Click on the buttons below learn more about them.
Newsletter
Prong the first is a Newsletter that will come out triannually (an early, mid, and late issue). Hopefully, the mid issue won’t be, as the kids say these days, mid. Each issue will tentatively answer a practically relevant communication science question by skeptically evaluating the existing research. The questions in the years ahead will hit on nearly every topic that humans care about, including but absolutely not limited to: romantic and platonic relationships, politics, morality, criminality and law, learning and memory, discrimination and bias, media, mental and physical health, technology, labor and economics, education, human development and rehabilitation, and so on. To give you an idea of the types of questions that could be addressed in the Newsletter, check out the questions below:
Do text-message reminders sent to parents increase childhood vaccination rates?
Does the linguistic complexity of an online petition affect how much support it receives?
Do certain kinds of praise encourage children to persist on difficult tasks?
Do anti-stigma campaigns decrease negative attitudes toward people who stutter?
Does using metaphors to describe pain shape how chronic pain affects daily life?
Do professional interpreters in a healthcare setting lead to higher patient satisfaction than using family members as interpreters?
Can vocal features, like pitch and loudness, reliably detect depression?
Does describing a suspect’s face after witnessing a crime hurt (rather than improve) later identification of that suspect’s face?
Does reading narrative fiction books improve empathy and perspective-taking?
When searching for housing, does speaking a non-standard dialect (such as Black English) decrease the chances that prospective renter will receive a call back to view the unit?
Does labeling our emotions dilute how intensely we feel such emotions?
Does exposure to online hate speech contribute to political radicalization?
Does a controlling tone of voice make listeners more likely to respond defiantly?
Are people with a history of language impairment more likely to engage in criminal behavior?
Does bilingualism delay memory decline associated with Alzheimer’s disease?
Do hateful words feel less emotionally painful in a second language?
Why is legal writing (such as contracts and federal laws) harder to understand than most other writing?
Does capitalizing distinctive letters in similar drug names (vinBLAStine vs. vinCRIStine) reduce medication dispensing errors?
Does talking to strangers increase social connection and well-being?
Can a persuasive story about an undocumented immigrant reliably change attitudes toward immigration policy?
Do memory enhancement techniques help people learn a second language more effectively?
Does limited language proficiency contribute to aviation accidents?
Does using “we” instead of “you” improve conflict resolution in romantic relationships?
Does intentionally adjusting the way one speaks (for example, talking slower and in simplified phrasing) to a person with a strong second-language accent lead the listener to feel belittled?
Can neuromodulation (for example, transcranial direct current stimulation) improve therapy outcomes for people with motor speech disorders?
Do certain fonts make reading easier for people with dyslexia?
Does expressive writing improve health outcomes for people with cancer?
Conversations
The second prong will be Conversations with folks in the lab and out in the field. Why conversations? Well, how can we have an initiative on communication without some good old-fashioned conversation!? But more to the point, the initiative will benefit from hearing from people who are doing the work in experimental or applied settings. Who might we talk to (or to whom might we talk, insert eye roll here)? We’ll talk… to researchers who have devoted their career to one of the questions we address in the newsletter…. to researchers who are doing good applied communication science research by, say, publishing a study with 10 experiments, publishing studies that “find nothing”, making their data publicly available, and daring to contradict some of their previous findings… to researchers whose focus is on ‘implementation science’ and can guide us in getting research out of the lab and into the real-world… to people with boots on the ground who are or could be implementing research into the real-world… to people whose expertise is ‘science communication’ and thus can tell us how to get the good word out to the public… and maybe even to people who think the initiative is generally misguided and needs a course correction? Let’s talk!
Outreach
The third prong is Outreach. We’ll take topics covered in the Newsletter (and the Conversations) and try to make them actionable out in the real world. If the Newsletter does a deep dive on a practically relevant communication science question and comes up with a strong conclusion, we’ll then take the necessary steps to implement that conclusion in everyday life. Whether its writing letters to representatives, speaking to hospital administrators, starting a social media campaign, or giving public lectures, the Outreach prong will aim to take solid findings from the laboratory and move them into real life. Because Outreach will be based on conclusions from the Newsletter, Outreach will have a bit of a lag and will likely begin in 2027.