Abstract
This study explores the image of synthetic biology and nanotechnology in comparison to agricultural biotechnology and communication technology by examining spontaneous associations with, and deliberate evaluations of, these technologies by university students. Data were collected through a self-completion online questionnaire by students from two universities in Switzerland. The survey aimed to capture implicit associations, explicit harm-benefit evaluations and views on regulation. The data suggest overall positive associations with emerging technologies. While positive associations were most pronounced for nanotechnology, agricultural biotechnology was attributed with the least favorable associations. In contrast to its positive result in the association task, respondents attributed a high harm potential for nanotechnology. Associations attributed to synthetic biology were demonstrated to be more positive than for agricultural biotechnology, however, not as favorable as for nanotechnology. Contrary to the evaluations of nanotechnology, the benefit-examples of synthetic biology were evaluated particularly positively. Accordingly, the investigated technologies enjoy different esteem, with synthetic biology and nanotechnology both showing a more “exciting” image. Even though, the image of nanotechnology was demonstrated to be more pronounced it was also more heterogeneous across tasks while agricultural biotechnology remains contested. For all technologies, the predominant spontaneous concerns pertain to risks rather than an immoral nature inherent to these technologies. Our data suggest that harm-benefit analyses reveal only one aspect of the attitude toward emerging technologies. Survey questions addressing spontaneous associations with these technologies are a valuable addition for our picture of the image of emerging technologies.
Highlights
It is characteristic for emerging technologies in the 21st century that, from the very outset, their development and potential have been widely discussed by policy makers, academic scholars, the media, and the public
It was natural scientists who were fascinated by synthetic biology (SB), as this item represents the second most often selected item of students from humanities and social sciences
With respect to the scary and risky nature that was implicitly associated with SB, we found a contrasting tendency in the explicit task, where a low level of harm potential was associated with both SB examples
Summary
It is characteristic for emerging technologies in the 21st century that, from the very outset, their development and potential have been widely discussed by policy makers, academic scholars, the media, and the public. Studies on public opinions toward emerging technologies have been performed, indicating a generally positive perception of these technologies (Gaskell et al, 2010; Kronberger et al, 2012; Hacker et al, 2015) The latter suggest, at least for the European context, that nanotechnology (NT) has a comparatively positive image, and some researchers hypothesize that the image of synthetic biology (SB) might follow a similar pattern (Bainbridge, 2002; Schmidt et al, 2008; Torgersen, 2009; Gaskell et al, 2010; Kronberger et al, 2012; Shapira et al, 2015). More data are needed to understand how laypeople evaluate these technologies and what factors influence their evaluation
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