Media Contact:
Dr. Michael Cobb, 919/513-3709
Dr. Jane Macoubrie, 919/515-9746
Chad Austin, News Services, 919/515-3470

Feb. 18, 2005

NC State Professors to Discuss Public Perceptions of Nanotechnology at AAAS Conference

EMBARGOED FOR RELEASE UNTIL 8 A.M. EST, SATURDAY, FEB. 19

Two North Carolina State University faculty members will present their findings on public opinions and perceptions of nanotechnology and outline ways to involve the general public in the policy decision-making process regarding the emerging science.

Dr. Michael Cobb, assistant professor of political science, and Dr. Jane Macoubrie, assistant professor of communication, will serve as panelists during a discussion of “Nanotechnology and the Public” at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), to be held Feb. 17-21 in Washington, D.C.

Cobb and Macoubrie will give presentations on their research findings during the panel at 8 a.m. on Saturday, Feb. 19.

Cobb will present key findings of the first nationally representative survey designed to gauge the public’s perceptions of nanotechnology. The telephone survey polled a random sample of 1,536 adults in the continental United States in the spring of 2004. The survey found that most Americans hold a generally positive view of the emerging science and believe the technology’s potential benefits outweigh its perceived risks. At the same time, most Americans do not trust business leaders in the nanotechnology industry to minimize potential risks to humans.

As part of the survey, Cobb also examined how much respondents’ attitudes could be influenced when presented with positive or negative information about nanotechnology. Respondents were presented with different arguments about nanotechnology – some highlighted risks and others highlighted benefits. Other respondents heard a balanced mix of positive and negative arguments, while a control group was given neutral messages about nanotechnology.

The positive and negative arguments resulted in only a slight change in respondents’ perceptions of the benefits and risks of nanotechnology. People who received information highlighting potential risks thought nanotechnology would be more risky, but still not more risky than beneficial. Those who received messages about the potential benefits were slightly more likely to see nanotechnology as beneficial. The positive or negative arguments never caused a complete reversal in opinion and rarely produced a dramatic shift in perceptions.

“Framing effects can be quite large when respondents know little about a subject because they are more likely to rely on the information you give them,” Cobb says. “Most studies of persuasion find that messages about risks are especially powerful. It’s therefore surprising that these arguments didn’t move people more than they did.”

Macoubrie will present findings on how using Internet-mediated forums could help involve the general public in nanotechnology policy issues. The forums are based on the Danish Consensus Conference model that originated in Denmark, where the Danish government’s Board of Technology seeks input from citizens on science and technology issues. The conferences allow citizens to learn about science and technology issues and be involved in the policy-making process by having them meet face-to-face with experts.

Macoubrie and other researchers from NC State incorporated the conference principles into an online environment. The researchers organized nine local Internet-mediated consensus conferences from 2001-04, two of which focused on nanotechnology. Macoubrie, who is an expert on group decision-making and the deliberation process, examined how the views of the participants evolved over the process. Similar to the survey results analyzed by Cobb, Macoubrie found that conference participants don’t trust government or business leaders to minimize risks to humans in nanotechnology research.

So far, the conferences have been local in scope; the goal now is to examine and improve the process of the local technology forums and construct a national model that would allow the public to help shape policy, Macoubrie says.

-austin-

Note to editors: A synopsis of the symposium follows.

“Nanotechnology and the Public”
Participants: Dr. Michael Cobb and Dr. Jane Macoubrie, North Carolina State University
Presented: Feb. 19, 2005, at the American Association for the Advancement of Science annual meeting

Synopsis: In December 2003, President George Bush signed the 21st Century Nanotechnology Research and Development Act, authorizing $3.7 billion in federal funding. Some of that funding is allocated to studies of societal and ethical implications of nanotechnology. This symposium will present early results from studies of media coverage of nanotechnology – important both for theoretical reasons, because they tell us how media cover science and technology, and for practical and policy reasons, because they help guide us toward understanding what social and ethical issues are important to broad publics.