Thursday, March 08, 2007
Judging Nano
Recent research describes how the public may respond to nanotech. This study (led by Yale's Cultural Cognition Project) surveyed some 1850 people. Some 90% of people surveyed had some opinion about nano's risks or benefits. However (and this only comes out around the middle of the paper) over 80 percent of U.S. respondents knew "little" or "nothing at all" about nanotechnology. Sooooo..... when people know nothing about nano, their reaction will be colored on the basis of how they respond to things they have heard of.
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Great find. Not understanding technology never stopped anyone from fearing it. A little knowledge is dangerous. Perhaps these sorts of surveys will get a different response in five years when everyone has heard of nano but few understand it.
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