Publication

When science meets society: The role of unsolicited selfdisclosures in conversations between researchers and community members

In this conversation-analytic study, the authors analyze conversations between researchers from different disciplines and community members to examine relationship building in real life. This is an open access article under the Creative Commons By license.

Author

Hanneke Hulst among others

Date

11 March 2025

Links

Language & Communication

Recently, there have been calls for a new approach to science communication, emphasizing
relationship building between researchers and the public. To date, what relationship
building looks like in practice remains unclear.

We analyzed a recurring pattern in these conversations where community members provide unsolicited self-disclosures. Such self-disclosures serve as one approach through which community members establish a link between “science” and their lifeworld, aiming to build a relationship with researchers. In response, researchers generally disattended the self-disclosure but occasionally asked questions that probed deeper into community members’ self-disclosures. We discuss the implications for science communication theory and practice.