A graphical abstract visually explains the content of a scientific article. Making a good abstract is hard, as science doesn’t let itself be summarised easily. Or, to be honest, scientists don’t easily allow their science to be summarised. Understandable, when you are conditioned to be able to prove everything you state.
To communicatie science effectively, graphical abstracts are a great tool. That’s why I love making them!
Compact communication
For this abstract, I worked together with dr. Sandra Klaperski-van der Wal. She has been doing research into pluralistic ignorance about climate change concern. Sandra and I worked together to condense her findings as compactly as possible. We start with explaining what pluralistic ignorance is, and then show some hypotheses and actual results from Sandra’s study. Surprise: the hypothesis doesn’t hold!
It was a challenge to catch this abstract psychological concept into a clear image. We tried to use icons and consistent colours to get the message across.
The science
Pluralistic ignorance is a social psychology phenomenon where people mistakenly think others hold an opinion that differs from their own. This may hinder them in taking action that aligns with that opinion: people are afraid to be judged by their opinion if they think it’s different.
If you want to know more, you’ll have to wait a little. Sandra’s publication is still in review. As soon as it’s published, I’ll post the link here.
Want your science clear?
Graphical abstracts are a great way of communication your science clearly. If you want that, let me know! I’d love to make more of these and get your research out there!