Department of Psychology at Swinburne University, Melbourne, Australia.
Public Underst Sci. 2011 May;20(3):347-66. doi: 10.1177/0963662509346910.
This research examines the influence of commercialization on support for scientific research. It compares the effects of the funding source with the type of organization on public support for stem cell research. Using a national Australian telephone survey (n = 1000), the results reveal that support drops significantly when scientific research is funded by private rather than public interests, and even more so when it is conducted in a private company rather than a public university. Respondents' preference for university research was enhanced if they trusted universities, distrusted major companies and believed that the research would be beneficial. A preference for public funding was also associated with lower trust in companies and a belief that the research would benefit people. Implications of these results are discussed in relation to the challenge of maintaining public support in an increasingly commercialized research environment.
本研究考察了商业化对支持科学研究的影响。它比较了资金来源与组织类型对公众支持干细胞研究的影响。通过一项全国性的澳大利亚电话调查（n=1000），结果表明，当科学研究由私人而不是公共利益资助时，公众对科学研究的支持显著下降，而当研究在私营公司而不是公立大学进行时，公众对科学研究的支持下降得更为明显。如果受访者信任大学、不信任大公司并认为研究将是有益的，他们对大学研究的偏好就会增强。对公共资金的偏好也与对公司的信任度降低以及认为研究将使人们受益的信念有关。这些结果的意义在讨论日益商业化的研究环境中如何保持公众支持的挑战时将被提及。
