TY - JOUR
T1 - From enabling technology to applications
T2 - The evolution of risk perceptions about nanotechnology
AU - Cacciatore, Michael A.
AU - Scheufele, Dietram A.
AU - Corley, Elizabeth
N1 - Funding Information:
This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation (Grants No. SES-0809470 and SES-0531194). Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.
PY - 2011/5
Y1 - 2011/5
N2 - Public opinion research on nanotechnology has primarily focused on judgments of abstract risks and benefits, rather than attitudes toward specific applications. This approach will be less useful as nanotechnology morphs from a scientific breakthrough into an enabling technology whose impacts on people's lives come in the form of concrete applications in specific areas. This study examines the mental connections or associations US citizens have with nanotechnology (e.g. the extent to which people associate nanotechnology with the medical field, the military, consumer products, etc.), and how these associations moderate the influences of risk and benefit perceptions on attitudes toward nanotechnology. Our results suggest that the assumption that risk perceptions shape overall attitudes toward emerging technologies is simplistic. Rather, individuals who associate nanotech with particular areas of application, such as the medical field, take risk perceptions much more into account when forming attitudes than respondents who do not make these mental connections.
AB - Public opinion research on nanotechnology has primarily focused on judgments of abstract risks and benefits, rather than attitudes toward specific applications. This approach will be less useful as nanotechnology morphs from a scientific breakthrough into an enabling technology whose impacts on people's lives come in the form of concrete applications in specific areas. This study examines the mental connections or associations US citizens have with nanotechnology (e.g. the extent to which people associate nanotechnology with the medical field, the military, consumer products, etc.), and how these associations moderate the influences of risk and benefit perceptions on attitudes toward nanotechnology. Our results suggest that the assumption that risk perceptions shape overall attitudes toward emerging technologies is simplistic. Rather, individuals who associate nanotech with particular areas of application, such as the medical field, take risk perceptions much more into account when forming attitudes than respondents who do not make these mental connections.
KW - Heuristics
KW - Mental associations
KW - Nanotechnology
KW - Opinion formation
KW - Risk
KW - Science
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=79956338425&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=79956338425&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1177/0963662509347815
DO - 10.1177/0963662509347815
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:79956338425
SN - 0963-6625
VL - 20
SP - 385
EP - 404
JO - Public Understanding of Science
JF - Public Understanding of Science
IS - 3
ER -