Experts often intimidated after public appearance, including by own colleagues

Increasingly more experts have become hesitant to do public appearances. “Their social safety has been tested while they are contributing to debates on important scientific questions”, president of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences Ineke Sluiter said. That’s what we see happening now.” Around 43 percent of experts were intimidated after a public appearance in the past five years, a survey by ScienceGuide showed. But if they do that they get reactions from their colleagues, such as ‘You were really outspoken’.” One researcher in the ScienceGuide survey said they faced death threats after publishing a scientific paper that sparked controversy. “Since it is no longer explicitly written in my social media accounts that I am a woman and there is no picture of myself, there have been fewer negative reactions”, one female researcher said.