The morality of attitudes toward nanotechnology: about God, techno-scientific progress, and interfering with nature
Résumé
Using survey data, we examine public attitudes toward and awareness of nanotechnology in Germany (N = 750). First, it is shown that a majority of the people are still not familiar with nanotechnology. In addition, diffusion of information about nanotechnology thus far mostly seems to reach men and people with a relative higher educational background. Also, pro-science and technology views are positively related with nanotech familiarity. Results further show that a majority of the people have an indifferent, ambiguous, or non-attitude toward nanotechnology. Multinomial logit analyses further reveal that nanotech familiarity is positively related with people’s attitudes. In addition, it is shown that traditional religiosity is unrelated to attitudes and that individual religiosity is weakly related to nanotechnology attitudes. However, moral covariates other than religiosity seem of major importance. In particular, our results show that more negative views on technological and scientific progress as well as more holistic views about the relation between people and the environment increase the likelihood of having a negative attitude toward nanotechnology.
Dans cette enquête, les auteurs examinent l’attitude et la connaissance des consommateurs allemands vis-à-vis des nanotechnologies. L’analyse économétrique montre qu’une majorité de personnes n’est pas familière avec le concept de nanotechnologies. La diffusion d’information semble davantage atteindre les hommes et les personnes avec un niveau d’éducation élevé. Cependant une majorité de personnes sont indifférentes ou sans attitudes précises vis-à-vis des nanotechnologies. Le sentiment religieux influence peu l’attitude vis-à-vis des nanotechnologies. En revanche, une vue négative sur la technologie et les sciences conduit à une attitude négative vis-à-vis des nanotechnologies.