Skip to main content

The Brain in the Public Space: Social Neuroscience and the Media

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Neuroscience and Social Science

Abstract

Here we analyze public communication of neuroscience, in general, and social neuroscience, in particular, as well as the circulation of its particular discourse in mass media. We discuss particular issues of neuroscience communications in the context of science popularization. As an example, we offer an analysis of neuroscience coverage in a national newspaper of widespread distribution and conclude that even though news articles on social neuroscience do not represent a significant proportion of scientific reports in the press, they are important platforms to disseminate neuroscientific accounts of social processes. This is especially so as regards the topics of interpersonal ties and emotional mechanisms, two concepts traditionally dominated by the social sciences. Finally, we offer some recommendations for bridging the gap between academic research in the field and its popularization.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Subscribe and save

Springer+ Basic
$34.99 /Month
  • Get 10 units per month
  • Download Article/Chapter or eBook
  • 1 Unit = 1 Article or 1 Chapter
  • Cancel anytime
Subscribe now

Buy Now

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 129.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 169.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 169.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Falk EB. Communication neuroscience as a tool for health psychologists. Health Psychol. 2010;29(4):355–7.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  2. Roussos A, et al. Psychotherapy and social neuroscience: forging links together. In: Ibáñez A, Sedeño L, García AM, editors. Neuroscience and social science. New York: Springer; 2017.

    Google Scholar 

  3. Cacioppo JT, Berntson GG. Social psychological contributions to the decade of the brain. Doctrine of multilevel analysis. Am Psychol. 1992;47(8):1019–28.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  4. Dingel MJ, Ostergren J, McCormick JB, Hammer R, Koenig BA. The media and behavioral genetics: alternatives coexisting with addiction genetics. Sci Technol Hum Values. 2015;40(4):459–86.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Zimmerman E, Racine E. Ethical issues in the translation of social neuroscience: a policy analysis of current guidelines for public dialogue in human research. Account Res. 2012;19(1):27–46.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  6. de Jong IM, Kupper F, Arentshorst M, Broerse J. Responsible reporting: neuroimaging news in the age of responsible research and innovation. Sci Eng Ethics. 2016;22(4):1107–30.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  7. Racine E, Illes J. Emerging ethical challenges in advanced neuroimaging research: review, recommendations and research agenda. J Empir Res Hum Res Ethics. 2007;2(2):1–10.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  8. Zigmond MJ. Implementing ethics in the professions: preparing guidelines on scientific communication for the society for neuroscience. Commentary on ‘implementing ethics in the professions: examples from environmental epidemiology’ (Soskolne and Sieswerda). Sci Eng Ethics. 2003;9(2):191–200.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  9. Weisberg DS, Keil FC, Goodstein J, Rawson E, Gray JR. The seductive allure of neuroscience explanations. J Cogn Neurosci. 2008;20(3):470–7.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  10. Luz M, Sabino C, Mattos R, Ferla AA, Andres B, Alba RD. Contribution towards studying the contemporary social imaginary: rhetoric and images of biosciences in popular scientific periodicals. Interface. 2013;10(1):84–106.

    Google Scholar 

  11. Schäfer M. The media in the labs, and the labs in the media. What we know about the mediatization of science. In: Lundby K, editor. Mediatization of communication. Berlin: De Gruyter; 2014. p. 571–93.

    Google Scholar 

  12. Christidou V, Dimopoulos K, Kouladis V. Constructing social representations of science and technology: the role of metaphors in the press and the popular scientific magazines. J Sci Commun. 2004;13:347–62.

    Google Scholar 

  13. Brossard D. New media landscapes and the science information consumer. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2013;110(Suppl 3):14096–101.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  14. Hilgartner S. The dominant view of popularization: conceptual problems, political uses. Public Underst Sci. 1990;20:519–39.

    Google Scholar 

  15. Allgaier J, Dunwoody S, Brossard D, Lo YY, Peters HP. Journalism and social media as means of observing the contexts of science. Bioscience. 2013;63(4):284–7.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  16. van Atteveldt NM, van Aalderen-Smeets SI, Jacobi C, Ruigrok N. Media reporting of neuroscience depends on timing, topic and newspaper type. PLoS One. 2014;9(8):e104780.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  17. Popescu M, Thompson RB, Gayton WF, Markowski V. A reexamination of the neurorealism effect: the role of context. J Sci Commun. 2016;15(6):A01.

    Google Scholar 

  18. Beck DM. The appeal of the brain in the popular press. Perspect Psychol Sci. 2010;5(6):762–6.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  19. O’Connor C, Rees G, Joffe H. Neuroscience in the public sphere. Neuron. 2012;74(2):220–6.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  20. Racine E, Bar-Ilan O, Illes J. fMRI in the public eye. Nat Rev Neurosci. 2005;6(2):159–64.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  21. Racine E, Bar-Ilan O, Illes J. Brain imaging: a decade of coverage in the print media. Sci Commun. 2006;28(1):122–42.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  22. Racine E, Waldman S, Rosenberg J, Illes J. Contemporary neuroscience in the media. Soc Sci Med. 2010;71(4):725–33.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  23. Gonon F, Bezard E, Boraud T. Misrepresentation of neuroscience data might give rise to misleading conclusions in the media: the case of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. PLoS One. 2011;6(1):e14618.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  24. Racine E. Identifying challenges and conditions for the use of neuroscience in bioethics. Am J Bioeth. 2007;7(1):74–6. discussion W1–4

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  25. Jonhson MJ, Littlefield M. Lost and found in translation: popular neuroscience in the emerging neurodisciplines. In: Pickersgill M, Van Keulen I, editors. Solciological reflections on the neurosciences. Bingley: Emerald; 2011. p. 279–99.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  26. Illes J, Moser MA, McCormick JB, Racine E, Blakeslee S, Caplan A, et al. Neurotalk: improving the communication of neuroscience research. Nat Rev Neurosci. 2010;11(1):61–9.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  27. Broer T, Pickersgill M, Deary IJ. The movement of research from the laboratory to the living room: a case study of public engagement with cognitive science. Neuroethics. 2016;9:159–71.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  28. Palma H. Infidelidad genética y hormigas corruptas. Una crítica al periodismo científico. Buenos Aires: Teseo; 2012. p. 245.

    Google Scholar 

  29. Mantilla MJ, Di Marco MH. La emergencia del cerebro en el espacio público: las noticias periodísticas sobre las neurociencias y el cerebro en la prensa gráfica en Argentina (2000–2012). Phys Rev Saúde Coletiva. 2016;26(1):177–200.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  30. Ortega F, Vidal F. Neurocultures: glimpses into an expanding universe. Frankfurt am Main. New York: Peter Lang; 2011. p. 359.

    Google Scholar 

  31. Pitts-Taylor V. The plastic brain: neoliberalism and the neuronal self. Health. 2010;14(6):635–52.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  32. Mantilla MJ. Educating ‘cerebral subjects’: the emergence of brain talk in the Argentinean society. BioSocieties. 2014;10(1):84–106.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  33. Blakemore C. Neuroscience and the media: the need for communication. Neuroscience. 1993;57(1):217–26.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  34. Miller G. Neuroscience. Neural communication breaks down as consciousness fades and sleep sets in. Science. 2005;309(5744):2148–9.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  35. Callard F, Fitzgerald D. Rethinking interdisciplinarity across the social sciences and neurosciences. Basingstoke: Palgrave; 2015.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  36. Meloni M, Williams S, Martin P. The biosocial: sociological themes and issues. Sociol Rev Monogr. 2016;64:7–25.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  37. Goldstein AA. Qué afinidades políticas hay entre los principales diarios y partidos de “derecha” en Brasil, Chile y Argentina a inicios del siglo XXI? In: Bohoslavsky E, Echeverría O, editors. Las derechas en el Cono Sur, Siglo XX. Los Polvorines: Unive. Nac. de Gral. Sarmiento; 2013.

    Google Scholar 

  38. Federico L. Homicidios diarios. Análisis del discuros periodístico sibre homicidios por armas de fuego. Buenos Aires (Argentina) 2001–2002. Salud Colectiva. 2010;6(3):295–312.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  39. Njaine K, De Souza Minayo MC. Análise do discurso da imprensa sobre rebelioes de jovens infratores em regime de privacao de liberdade. Ciencia Saude Coetiva. 2002;7(2):285–97.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  40. Klein D, Rotarska-Jagiela A, Genc E, Sritharan S, Mohr H, Roux F, et al. Adolescent brain maturation and cortical folding: evidence for reductions in gyrification. PLoS One. 2014;9(1):e84914.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  41. Uhlhaas PJ, Roux F, Singer W, Haenschel C, Sireteanu R, Rodriguez E. The development of neural synchrony reflects late maturation and restructuring of functional networks in humans. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2009;106(24):9866–71.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  42. Evers K. Can we be epigenetically proactive. In: Metzinger T, Windt JM, editors. Open mind: philosophy and the mind sciences in the 21st century. Cambridge: MIT Press; 2016. p. 497–518.

    Google Scholar 

  43. Lipina SJ, Posner MI. The impact of poverty on the development of brain networks. Front Hum Neurosci. 2012;6:238.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  44. Lipina SJ, Segretin MS. Strengths and weakness of neuroscientific investigations of childhood poverty: future directions. Front Hum Neurosci. 2015;9:53.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  45. Segretin MS, Hermida MJ, Prats LM, Fracchia CS, Ruetti E, Lipina SJ. Childhood poverty and cognitive development in latin America in the 21st century. New Dir Child Adolesc Dev. 2016;2016(152):9–29.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  46. Rose N, Abi-Rached J. Neuro: the new brain sciences and the management of the mind. Princeton: Princeton University Press; 2013. p. 352.

    Google Scholar 

  47. Clarke A, Shim J, Mamo L, Fosket R, Fishman J. Biomedicalization: technoscientific transformations of health, illness and US biomedicine. Am Sociol Rev. 2003;68(2):161–94.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  48. Valentine A, Kurczek J. “Social” neuroscience: leveraging social media to increase student engagement and public understanding of neuroscience. J Undergrad Neurosci Educ. 2016;15(1):A94–A103.

    PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Diego A. Golombek .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2017 Springer International Publishing Switzerland

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Mantilla, M.J., Di Marco, M.H., Golombek, D.A. (2017). The Brain in the Public Space: Social Neuroscience and the Media. In: Ibáñez, A., Sedeño, L., García, A. (eds) Neuroscience and Social Science. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-68421-5_14

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics