Books and the popularization of science

This article discusses best-selling science books, the characteristics of the audience for popular science books, and the role of books within science popularization and science education. Best-selling science books have been rare, but generally readable. Regional books, also important sources of scientific information, aim at much smaller, far more price-sensitive audiences. Many successful regional, nontechnical science books are readable, heavily illustrated, and in some cases, cross-disciplinary. To increase the attentive audience for scientific information, improvement in science education is necessary, and the most efficacious role for scientific institutions may be the production of materials that can be easily incorporated into school curricula. He is the author of several nontechnical guides to the geology of Kansas and teaches science writing at the University of Kansas School of Journalism and Mass Communications A slightly different version of this paper was presented at the joint meeting of the Association of Earth Science éditors, European Association of Editors, and the Council of Biology Editors, Ottawa, Ontario, September 1989.     

Reducing Children's Implicit Racial Bias Through Exposure to Positive Out‐Group Exemplars

Studies with adults suggest that implicit preferences favoring White versus Black individuals can be reduced through exposure to positive Black exemplars. However, it remains unclear whether developmental differences exist in the capacity for these biases to be changed. This study included 369 children and examined whether their implicit racial bias would be reduced following exposure to positive Black exemplars. Results showed that children's implicit pro‐White bias was reduced following exposure to positive Black exemplars, but only for older children (M_age = ~10 years). Younger children's (M_age = ~7 years) implicit bias was not affected by this intervention. These results suggest developmental differences in the malleability of implicit racial biases and point to possible age differences in intervention effectiveness.