TsungJen Shih

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Does Culture Matter? The influence of cultural
values on public perception nanotechnology

• Tsung-Jen Shih
• School of Journalism and Mass Communication
• University of WisconsinMadison
• Oct 7, 2009

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Overview

• Researchers have paid attention to public opinion
  
• Current research Knowledge vs heuristics
• More attention should be dedicated to difference
  at the national level
• Why is it important?
• Integrated regulation
• Commercialization
• Cooperation and competition

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This study
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Methods

• 21 countries , with Hierarchical Linear Modeling
• Individual level
• US Survey, 2007
• Eurobarometer 64.3, 2005
• Country level
• Human development values-----------World Value
  Survey
• Cultural worldviews---------Hofstede Schwartz
  value survey

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• Many possibilities created by nanotech also, at
  the same time, challenge peoples basic values
  about life.
• Many religious groups have criticized
  nanotechnology for creating the potential for
  human enhancement and even the creation of life
• The role of religiosity, traditional value,
  survival value

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Cultural values
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Predicting moral acceptability
Country level
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• As cultural theory suggests, risk is selected.
• How a technology will develop depends on what
  kind of society we want.

Hierarchy
Individualism
Collectivism
Egalitarianism
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Perception of benefits risks
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Predicting risk benefits
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Estimated means
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Discussion about benefits and risks

• Perceptual filters
• Religiosity and confidence affect the way people
  interpret benefits and risks
• Their effects vary with cultures (survival value
  has an weakening effect on confidence)
• Perception of benefits and risks also reflect
  preferred ways of life

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• Integrating the variables explored previously
• Two models
• Human development values
• Cultural worldviews
• Effects at the country level were not obvious

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• Individual value predispositions, along with the
  evaluation of core properties of nanotechnology,
  are the most important determinants of public
  opinion
• The important role of values indicated that
  people care more than the technology itself
• However, the environment in which the individual
  lives also matters as it provides the sources
  from which peoples values originate
• Aggregate values and worldviews affect both the
  perception of nanotechnology and the effect of
  individual-level variables

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• Thank you!

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• Why is confidence assumed to affect moral
  acceptability
• Scheufele et al (2008) suggested that moral
  acceptability was associated with trust in
  scientists at the individual level. As a type of
  general trust, I therefore control confidence as
  a potential mediator.
• Although the causal direction b/w confidence and
  moral acceptability is not clear, this study
  showed that religiosity played a role at the
  individual level even after confidence was
  controlled.

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• Does religious denomination really have no
  effects?
• The conclusion that the strength of religiosity
  matters more than religious denomination was
  based on country-level results.
• The results suggested that religious denomination
  did not explain the varied effects of religiosity
  on moral acceptability found in different
  cultures. They also did not affect moral
  perception with respect to nanotechnology.
• However, the effect of religious denomination at
  the individual level is not clear.

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HLM

• Analysis mostly based on HLM
• Violation of OLS assumption (independence)
• Taking into account aggregate and individual
  level variables simultaneously
• Allowing me to examine whether the effect of
  individual-level predictors vary with cultures

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US
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Predicting support in the US
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Comparison of US public opinion surveys in 2004
and 2007
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Predicting benefits risks

• Why is cultural theory relevant? The definition
  of risk pertains to a societys preferred
  lifestyles and social relations
• Individualism (vs collectivism)
• Egalitarianism (vs hierarchy)
• Religiosity and confidence as perceptual
  filters

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• No individual data regarding cultural worldviews
  and values
• Questions are too general
• benefits and risks
• regulations
• Not sure whether each construct has the same
  meaning in different cultures

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Predicting moral acceptability

• The association b/w religiosity and moral
  acceptability
• the influence at the individual level
• the influence at the aggregate level
• invariant association across cultures?
• The association b/w human development values and
  moral acceptability