There’s a point in some of my workshops where I ask participants what they think the #1 most-trafficked website is. Always, always, always you say “Google.” And why not? You Google. And your peers Google. But Yahoo! is the #1 website. This seemingly innocent mistake reveals an unconscious class bias among nature protection and pollution control experts that inhibits our ability to communicate effectively with everyday citizens.

Whether you prefer Google or Yahoo! says something about your class blackground. #2 Google is the Orvis of the online world, serving a more educated and affluent clientele. #1 Yahoo! is the Bass Pro Shops of the online world, serving a more blue collar audience (Source: TechCrunch). The pattern extends to big-name social networking sites. #2 Facebook skews affluent, educated, and white. #1 MySpace skews bluecollar and ethnically diverse (Source: ScienceDaily). 

Most nature protection and pollution control people aren’t rich (I’d raise my rates if you were) – but you are highly educated and spend most of your day in the company of others who share this background. The same way you convince yourself that everybody uses Google, you convince yourself that everybody understands your shop talk, like ”watershed.” But in fact…

Able to Guess the Correct Definition of “Watershed” on a Multiple Choice Test

Source: A Survey of Chesapeake Bay Watershed Residents, Virginia Tech, 2002

Bottom line here: You and your peers are fortunate to be part of an educated elite minority. Keep that in mind the next time you are all sitting around a table talking about what everybody else thinks and does.