Knight Andrew
Susquehanna University, Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Selinsgrove, PA 17870, USA.
Risk Anal. 2007 Dec;27(6):1553-63. doi: 10.1111/j.1539-6924.2007.00988.x.
Data from a regional Southwest telephone survey in the United States (N= 432) were used to examine the intervening effects of knowledge, morality, trust, and benefits on support for animal and plant biotechnology applications. Results showed that perceptions of agricultural biotechnologies varied by the two applications-animals and plants. Respondents reported higher opposition to the genetic modification of animals, which is consistent with prior research. Results also indicated that morality and perceived benefits directly affected support for both animal and plant applications, but trust and knowledge only had indirect effects. Morality and perceived benefits accounted for most of the variance explained among the intervening variables. The effects of trust were mediated through perceived benefits. The effects of knowledge on support were mediated primarily through trust. The influence of sociodemographic and consumer behavior variables varied by application. Results lend support to several theoretical notions. First, the significance of perceived benefits supports that there is an inverse relationship between benefits and risks. Second, moral objections may outweigh perceived benefits for specific applications, and the genetic modification of animals is deemed to be more morally unacceptable than the genetic modification of plants. These findings demonstrate the need to understand more thoroughly the moral and ethical issues surrounding novel technologies. Third, this research supports the claim that trust is not a powerful predictor of perceptions of technological products, which is contrary to most risk perception research.
美国西南部地区电话调查（N = 432）的数据被用于检验知识、道德、信任和利益对动植物生物技术应用支持度的中介效应。结果表明，对农业生物技术的认知因动物和植物这两种应用而异。受访者对动物基因改造的反对程度更高，这与先前的研究一致。结果还表明，道德和感知到的利益直接影响对动植物应用的支持，但信任和知识仅具有间接影响。道德和感知到的利益在中介变量中解释了大部分方差。信任的影响通过感知到的利益来介导。知识对支持度的影响主要通过信任来介导。社会人口统计学和消费者行为变量的影响因应用而异。研究结果支持了几个理论观点。首先，感知到的利益的重要性支持了利益与风险之间存在反比关系。其次，对于特定应用，道德反对可能超过感知到的利益，并且动物基因改造被认为比植物基因改造在道德上更不可接受。这些发现表明需要更全面地理解围绕新技术的道德和伦理问题。第三，本研究支持了信任并非技术产品认知有力预测因素的观点，这与大多数风险认知研究相反。
