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Intercultural Praxis: A Tool for Engaging With Misinformation on Earthquake Risk

Description: 

Earthquakes remain one of the greatest natural hazards to society. Even so, the spread of misinformation and conspiracy theories is a common challenge to effective earthquake risk communication in the public sphere. Although scientists generally agree that misinformation must be addressed, the community appears uncertain on how to accomplish that. Intercultural Praxis, a technique developed in Intercultural Communication studies, is a tool that can be applied to help address this question. Using this strategy, several conflicting differences in value systems become apparent. First, scientists as a community inherently promote power distance between members which drives counter to high independent orientation cultures like in the US. Whereas expert authority is revered in the scientific community, such authority is often viewed distrustfully by the public, especially if funded by government entities. In such cases that scientists are funded by government entities, the public is likely to perceive scientists first as agents of the state before seeing them as members of the scientific community, which again promotes a perceived power distance that is viewed suspiciously by many individuals in Western cultures. Second, scientists must recognize that misinformation is not a ‘bug’ in the system but is instead a feature especially in the digital era. This is a challenge to the deficit model of communication, the most commonly used strategy for science communication that seeks to fill specific knowledge gaps in the public’s understanding. However, with the public’s aversion to power distance, this strategy commonly struggles to patch the knowledge gaps it intends to correct. In contrast, conspiracy theories are often successfully promoted using a strong emphasis on individualism and a person’s ability to learn and reason for themselves with minimal expert guidance. As such, applying a dialogue-based model that promotes discussion and decreases power distance may help to bridge the gaps between scientists and the public in high-independent orientation cultures.

Session: Adventures in Social Seismology: Ethical Engagement, Earthquake Early Warnings, Operational Forecasts, and Beyond [Poster]

Type: Poster

Date: 4/15/2025

Presentation Time: 08:00 AM (local time)

Presenting Author: Isaac

Student Presenter: Yes

Invited Presentation: 

Poster Number: 127

Authors