Department of Sociology, Center for Social Theory, Ghent University, Belgium.
Public Underst Sci. 2011 Mar;20(2):195-206. doi: 10.1177/0963662509350139.
In spite of great expectations about the potential of nanotechnology, this study shows that people are rather ambiguous and pessimistic about nanotechnology applications in the food domain. Our findings are drawn from a survey of public perceptions about nanotechnology food and nanotechnology food packaging (N = 752). Multinomial logistic regression analyses further reveal that knowledge about food risks and nanotechnology significantly influences people's views about nanotechnology food packaging. However, knowledge variables were unrelated to support for nanofood, suggesting that an increase in people's knowledge might not be sufficient to bridge the gap between the excitement some business leaders in the food sector have and the restraint of the public. Additionally, opposition to nanofood was not related to the use of heuristics but to trust in governmental agencies. Furthermore, the results indicate that public perceptions of nanoscience in the food domain significantly relate to views on science, technology, and nature.
尽管人们对纳米技术的潜力抱有很高的期望，但这项研究表明，人们对纳米技术在食品领域的应用持相当模糊和悲观的态度。我们的研究结果来自于对公众对纳米技术食品和纳米技术食品包装的看法的调查（N=752）。多项逻辑回归分析进一步表明，对食品风险和纳米技术的了解显著影响了人们对纳米技术食品包装的看法。然而，知识变量与对纳米食品的支持无关，这表明增加人们的知识可能不足以弥合食品行业一些商业领袖的兴奋与公众的克制之间的差距。此外，反对纳米食品与使用启发式无关，而是与对政府机构的信任有关。此外，研究结果表明，公众对食品领域纳米科学的看法与对科学、技术和自然的看法有显著的关系。
