How aware and knowledgeable are Malaysians of modern biotechnology?

Abstract

Modern biotechnology has been given priority by the Malaysian government for wealth creation in the 9th Malaysian Plan and in the Malaysia's Science and Technology Policy for the 21st Century. However this technology has also been classified as a complex emerging issue that exhibits high salience combined with limited knowledge on part of the public. Some researchers stress the importance of assessing people's knowledge on modern biotechnology as according to a theory on decision making, people only form attitudes about technologies and techniques after they have acquired relevant information. The purpose of this paper is to assess and compare the awareness, knowledge and engagement level of the Malaysian public in the Klang Valley across several demographic background such stakeholders’ groups, religion, races, ages, education levels and gender. A survey was carried out on 1017 respondents from various interest groups in the Klang Valley region. Results of the survey showed that the overall mean score for awareness, knowledge and engagement on modern biotechnology were moderate. ANOVAs showed significant differences in awareness, knowledge and engagement levels across stakeholders’ groups, ages and education level while knowledge and engagement differed significantly across religion and races. Result of t-test showed that the females tended to have significantly higher awareness than the males but were at par in term of knowledge and engagement with modern biotechnology.