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Team:Missouri Miners/Psych
From 2010.igem.org
Predicting Opinions on Synthetic Biology
Genetic engineering has been advancing at remarkable speeds over the past decade. This rapid rate of development has caused the general public to take a closer look at this particular field of science. There are a variety of factors that may influence the way people think of research in genetic engineering. Research conducted by Dr. Jacqueline Bichsel and students Travis Bishop and Ashley Nelson at the Missouri University of Science and Technology focuses on five of these factors including age, education, religiosity, and sex. This research was performed for the purpose of gathering a general understanding of the public’s attitude toward genetic engineering. According to the research older generations were not as skeptical about the ethics of genetic engineering. They also did not support federal funding as readily as younger people. Trends were also noticed in that individuals with a higher education did not support genetic testing for psychological and intellectual traits. Individuals with a more religious background did not acknowledge the possible perks of genetic research. They also did not support the use of genetic testing for disease prediction. Females accepted the idea that genes are more responsible for determining behavior than environment better than males. This information can be used to draw inferences about the general public opinion. It can also be used to determine which groups of people would be more likely to support our research. We would like to thank Dr. Bichsel and her students for allowing us to use their research.
References Bichsel, J., Gibson, T., & Nelson, A. (2010, August). Development of a survey assessing attitudes toward genetic research. Presented at the annual meeting, American Psychological Association, San Diego, CA Bichsel, J., Summerville, L., & Paul, J. (2010, August). Cognitive and personality predictors of attitudes toward genetic research. Presented at the annual meeting, American Psychological Association, San Diego, CA.
