International Journal of Public Opinion Research Advance Access published online on March 13, 2006
International Journal of Public Opinion Research, doi:10.1093/ijpor/edl003
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1 Dominique Brossard (Ph.D., Cornell University) is an assistant professor in the School of Journalism & Mass Communication, and a member of the Center for World Affairs and the Global Economy, at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA
* To whom correspondence should be addressed. This study uses the contemporary debate over agricultural biotechnology to conceptualize a theoretical model that can be used to explain how citizens reach judgments across a range of science and technology controversies. We report findings from a mail survey of New York State residents that depicts a ‘low information’ public relying heavily on heuristics such as value predispositions, trust, and schema to form an opinion about agricultural biotechnology. Science knowledge does play a modest role, with the news media serving as an important source of informal learning. Contrary to expectations and past research, we do not find any direct effects for news attention on support for agricultural biotechnology. Deference to scientific authority is a central value predisposition shaping support for agricultural biotechnology. Positively correlated with education, deference to scientific authority is the strongest influence on support for agricultural biotechnology in our model. Part of the variable’s influence is direct, but part of it is also indirect, as deference to scientific authority is a key predictor of both trust in the sponsors of biotechnology and generalized reservations about the impacts of science.
Received July 18, 2005
Revised December 2, 2005
Article
Deference to Scientific Authority Among a Low Information Public: Understanding U.S. Opinion on Agricultural Biotechnology
Dominique Brossard 1 *
and
Matthew C. Nisbet 2
2 Matthew C. Nisbet (Ph.D., Cornell University) is assistant professor in the School of Communication at American University
Dominique Brossard, E-mail: db36{at}cornell.edu
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