divide over climate change
Researchers have shown that combining climate data with visually
engrossing art can make data more meaningful to viewers and bridge political divides related to climate science.

Date:
July 7, 2023
Source:
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Summary:
A new study shows that intentionally integrating art with data
visualizations can help non-expert audiences more meaningfully
engage with climate change while also bridging political divides
in ways that data alone cannot.


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FULL STORY ========================================================================== Communicating science to a general audience can be
challenging. Successfully conveying research on polarizing topics such
as climate change can be even more difficult.

But a new study from University of Wisconsin-Madison researcher Nan Li
shows that intentionally integrating art with data visualizations can
help non-expert audiences more meaningfully engage with climate change
while also bridging political divides in ways that data alone cannot. In
fact, data graphs on their own can exacerbate political division on
climate change.

As an assistant professor in the Department of Life Sciences
Communication, Li studies how innovative visual representations of science
can shape people's understanding and opinions about various scientific
issues. Li teamed up with Isabel Villanueva, Thomas Jilk and Dominique
Brossard from UW-Madison and Brianna Rae Van Matre from EcoAgriculture
Partners to survey the responses of people across the political spectrum
to a painting by Diane Burko entitled "Summer Heat, 2020." The painting depicts red, orange and blue motifs of wildfires and melting glaciers that overlap with maps that appear to drip over a graph of global atmospheric
carbon dioxide levels. It's not just art and science side-by-side or
pretty colors added to a graph; the two are combined to tell a larger
story that makes people stop and think about climate change.

Li thinks this intentional integration of the data into the piece of
art is part of its success.

"In order for art to maximize its potential as a tool for public
engagement, you really need to use it as a catalyst for triggering self-reflection," Li says. "People use this piece of art as a starting
point to think about what this all means to themselves." For the study, published in Communications Earth & Environment, 671 survey participants
from across the U.S. were divided into groups and shown four different presentations of the painting and data it contains: the original painting,
a detailed version of the graph it includes, a simplified version of that
same graph and an edited version of the painting with a detailed graph.

In the first iteration of the survey, participants were instructed
ahead of time to reflect on the meaning of and emotions evoked by the
visuals. Survey participants who saw the paintings reported stronger
positive emotions -- like happiness, awe, inspiration and hope -- than participants who were shown just the graphs.

The researchers then used a digital editing tool to represent what it
would look like if "Summer Heat, 2020" and other visuals were posted to
an Instagram feed. The caption contained more details about the painting
and facts about climate change.

Participants felt the artwork post was as credible a source of information
as the data graphs post. Li says this finding supports the idea that
galleries aren't the only way these kinds of artwork can be successful,
but that bringing them to a larger audience through social media is
beneficial as well.

In general, when people see graphs about climate change, whether they
identify as liberal or conservative influences how they perceive the
relevance of the issue. But in the new study, Li's team saw that the gap between political affiliations was reduced when survey participants saw
the painting in a social media format. In other words, when liberals
and conservatives both see artistic representations of climate data
rather than data alone, they are more likely to share the perception
that climate change is relevant to them.

Another iteration of the survey did not instruct participants
to reflect on the meaning and emotions the visuals inspired before
seeing them. Participants viewed the simulated Instagram posts and then
later reported their perceived relevance of climate change. This time, participants' perceived relevance of climate change was equally polarized
along their political ideology despite the different visuals they were
shown. To Li, this suggests that priming people for introspection is
important for breaking down political barriers.

While the findings are exciting, Li also recognizes this case study is
very specific. The study is limited to the use of one painting in one
style from one artist.

Moving forward, she and her team hope to complete additional studies that
tease out what element of a piece makes communicating the scientific information more successful. They want to expand the study to consider reactions to other styles by artists from other backgrounds and survey reactions of people in other countries. Li and her team also highlight
that it's important for scientists and artists to be aware of their
audience's interest level in art and recognize that not everyone will
react emotionally or cognitively to a piece in the same way.

Even though communicating these polarizing concepts can be challenging,
Li believes in the ability of art to bridge the gap between a lay audience
and scientific data.

"When you show art, I think it sort of makes people think, 'Hey, wait
a minute.

What is this all about?'" Li says. "It fills in people's imaginative
deficit of what data means without taking a lecturing approach. It
actually engages people to explore the meaning themselves."
* RELATED_TOPICS
o Mind_&_Brain
# Perception # Creativity # K-12_Education
o Earth_&_Climate
# Environmental_Awareness # Climate # Global_Warming
o Science_&_Society
# Environmental_Policies # Political_Science #
Ocean_Policy
* RELATED_TERMS
o Temperature_record_of_the_past_1000_years
o Global_climate_model o Scientific_method o
Consensus_of_scientists_regarding_global_warming
o Global_warming_controversy o Kyoto_Protocol o
Scientific_misconduct o Mnemonic

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provided by University_of_Wisconsin-Madison. Original written by Elise
Mahon. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.


========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Nan Li, Isabel I. Villanueva, Thomas Jilk, Brianna Rae Van Matre,
Dominique Brossard. Artistic representations of data can help bridge
the US political divide over climate change. Communications Earth &
Environment, 2023; 4 (1) DOI: 10.1038/s43247-023-00856-9 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/07/230707153828.htm

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