There is a knowledge gap between social scientists who study social issues and people who have an interest in those issues (e.g. race, gender, sexual orientation).

More scholars should enter the public sphere and communicate their work to the public. (1/7)

They will face pushback for four main reasons:

(1) Moral entrepreneurs may take bastardized versions of solid statistical evidence or careful theoretical formulations and apply them inaccurately to deal with serious issues surrounding race, class, and gender. (2/7)

(2) The well has been poisoned by media personalities and grifters. These agents have no incentive to provide nuance to their arguments. Your conclusions, generated from years of work, will be countered with simple bullet points. (3/7)

(3) The conclusions you present will violate many people's personal and political sensibilities. People will conflate research that is not political with politics. This sets in motion the cognitive process of developing counterarguments or mental barriers to acceptance. (4/7)

(4) There is a dearth of precise measurements. For example - even though there is a preponderance of evidence suggesting systemic racism, there is no *one number* showing this or *one measure*. This makes it easier for people to dismiss the work as not "real" science. (5/7)

Despite these problems, it is better for society as a whole if social scientists commented publicly on social issues. For too long, most social scientists have focused on speaking with each other in conferences or publishing in esoteric journals. (6/7)

In a postmodern society, ones' understanding of the world is a function of ones' social networks and media sources. Therefore, it is imperative that social scientists try as much as possible to become a part of these networks and present their work to the media. (7/7)