Do facts matter for science communication?



“Facts don’t matter,” Kevin Folta said to a lecture hall of faculty members and graduate students in the College of Agriculture and Applied Science at Utah State University on Monday.

The audience was silent as the presenter let his words sink in to a group of researchers ranging from food to climate science. “Facts don’t change minds,” Folta said.

Folta is a professor and chairman of horticultural sciences at the University of Florida. His research sequencing the strawberry genome is overshadowed by his history as a maverick science communicator – and that previous research topic was definitely sweeter than the reception he has sometimes gotten when discussing genetically modified organisms, vaccines and climate change since 2002.

Folta’s goal is simple: tell the truth in the right way. To him, that means having conversations in which values are given more weight than facts. Folta called out the science community for being poor at intimacy and value-based communication which he believes is more effective for spreading truth and innovation.

“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said and forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel,” Folta said, quoting Maya Angelou. “Trust is a feeling.”

He partially blames the spread of misinformation on the experts and scientists for not participating in the conversations that are being had on social media, Reddit and YouTube.

Abby Benninghoff, a faculty member in the department of Animal, Dairy and Veterinary Sciences said to the audience, “raise your hand if you have Twitter.” Less than a quarter of the room raised their hands. “Raise your hand if you’re on Reddit,” Benninghoff said. The number of hands decreased.  

“Because not enough of us are participating, just a few of us are being targeted,” Folta said. “It’s that gravity and mass action of telling the truth together that really makes the difference.”

To practice what he preaches, Folta operates the “Talking Biotech” podcast to deliver potentially inflammatory or controversial science information in a digestible and entertaining way. Each podcast features an expert in their field discussing research ranging from the health impacts of popular herbicides to genetically engineered animals. His efforts to engage the public in science, specifically food and agriculture science, have resulted in death threats and costly legal fees for himself and his institution.

“Time will be kind,” Folta said. “Time will show that there are people that got up and fought for this stuff.”

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