I was reading Russian political Telrgram earlier today, and one of the better channels ("Толкователь") had a post about a scientific study on why people prefer conspiracy theories over scientific information.
The study's summary says that this is because conspiracy theories are communicated in a language that is understandable, while scientific communication uses language that is opaque for most people.
Which leads me to the conclusion that any effort towards making scientific communication more understandable to general public -- including the annotated equations -- is a good thing.
> The study's summary says that this is because conspiracy theories are communicated in a language that is understandable, while scientific communication uses language that is opaque for most people.
Well, when you remove the constraint to be truthful, you can do a lot of things to make statements that are more plausible and convincing to a layman. In other words, of course when the main requirement is just to sound good you end up with statements that are more convincing.
Did you know that 74.13% of all statistics are completely made up? It's true! I've got a report from the Institute of Data & Information Oriented Technology Studies right here!
The study's summary says that this is because conspiracy theories are communicated in a language that is understandable, while scientific communication uses language that is opaque for most people.
Which leads me to the conclusion that any effort towards making scientific communication more understandable to general public -- including the annotated equations -- is a good thing.