Pardo Rafael, Midden Cees, Miller Jon D
Fundacion BBVA, Principe de Vergara 51, 28006, Madrid, Spain.
J Biotechnol. 2002 Sep 11;98(1):9-24. doi: 10.1016/s0168-1656(02)00082-2.
Public attitudes toward biotechnology in the European Union have been characterized as negative using Eurobarometer data, but so far little attention has been paid to building a robust metric appropriate for emerging public opinion issues which combine high salience with very limited knowledge by the public. On the basis of the general literature about the formation and structure of attitudes and about public perceptions of science, this article presents a new metric and analysis: first, for estimating the level of awareness and knowledge of biotechnology in Europe; second, for assessing the stability and depth of these evaluative perceptions; and third, for exploring the roles of canonical socio-demographic variables, the knowledge variable and general attitudinal schemas for understanding the perceptions of both benefits and risks of biotech applications. The results show the importance of general value orientations or "worldviews" in shaping positive attitudes, and more of these general cognitive schemas should be measured in future research. The same multivariate model was unable to account for a significant percentage of the total variance in the perception of risks, suggesting that new measures are needed to tap this critical area in the acceptance of biotech in Europe.
根据欧洲晴雨表的数据，欧盟公众对生物技术的态度被描述为负面的。但到目前为止，对于构建一个适用于新兴公众舆论问题的稳健指标关注甚少，这些问题兼具高显著性和公众知识极为有限的特点。基于有关态度形成与结构以及公众对科学认知的一般文献，本文提出了一种新的指标和分析方法：其一，用于估计欧洲对生物技术的认知和了解程度；其二，用于评估这些评价性认知的稳定性和深度；其三，用于探究典型社会人口变量、知识变量和一般态度模式在理解生物技术应用的益处和风险认知方面所起的作用。结果表明，一般价值取向或“世界观”在塑造积极态度方面具有重要性，未来研究应衡量更多此类一般认知模式。同一多元模型无法解释风险认知总方差中的很大比例，这表明需要新的措施来挖掘欧洲生物技术接受度这一关键领域。
