Scientists have a public image problem. Could Instagram be an answer? In this post, originally published here, I chat with social psychologist Susan Fiske to explore how scientists are perceived by others, and what we can do about it. To help change public perceptions of scientists, please check out my new Scientist Selfies project. Myself and a team of researchers are crowd-funding a research project to explore public perceptions of scientists who Instagram (and selfie!), and we need YOU.

Dr. Susan Fiske is Eugene Higgins Professor of Psychology and Public Affairs at the Princeton University Department of Psychology, and known for her work on social cognition, stereotypes and prejudice. In 2014, Fiske and Cydney Dupree conducted a study looking at stereotypes of scientists compared to other groups, or how warm and competent scientists are perceived compared to other groups, based on occupation. They found that scientists, while competent, are not necessarily warm, and that’s a problem for scientists who need to or would like to communicate with broad audiences.

“Perceptions of scientists, like other social perceptions, involves inferring both their apparent intent (warmth) and capability (competence). To illustrate, we polled adults online about typical American jobs, rated as American society views them, on warmth and competence dimensions, as well as relevant emotions. Ambivalently perceived high-competence but low-warmth, “envied” professions included lawyers, chief executive officers, engineers, accountants, scientists, and researchers.” – Fiske & Dupree, 2014

Fiske came of age in the 1970s, in the midst of the civil rights and women’s rights movements, she says. She grew up in Obama’s neighborhood in Chicago, Hyde Park, which she describes as “emphatically integrated.” In her experience, moving to Boston for college was a bit of a shock when she realized it was far more segregated than what she grew up knowing. She also comes from a long line of suffragists and women’s rights advocates, so she was naturally attracted to the topic of how people stereotype others.

“What concerns me most is that people treat each other with respect, and with some degree of depth,” Fiske said. “You can’t have that depth with everyone you meet, such as the gas station attendant, but you can certainly respect everybody. I got into social psychology because I wanted to try to make the world a better place. But I realized that a person would be more credible if a person had data. It seemed to me that you couldn’t just have opinions about how to make the world a better place.”

As Fiske studied social psychology and learned more about how people form impressions about other people, she was struck by how often people use stereotypes as cognitive shortcuts.

“I got interested in stereotypes as a way that people form impressions,” Fiske said. “At the time, cognitive psychology and social psychology were starting to influence each other, and I came in at the ground floor of social cognition research, which enabled me to work on how people make sense of other people.”

In 2013, Fiske was invited to the National Academy of Sciences Sackler Colloquium on the Science of Science Communication (II), and based on her experience decided that she could provide data on how people make sense of scientists.