Elizabeth A. Corley

Scientists worry about some risks more than the public

A comparison between two recent national surveys among nanoscientists and the general public in the US shows that, in general, nanoscientists are more optimistic than the public about the potential benefits of nanotechnology. However, for some issues related to the environmental and long-term health impacts of nanotechnology, nanoscientists were significantly more concerned than the public.

Faculty job satisfaction across gender and discipline

Abstract It is projected that by 2014 colleges, universities, and professional schools will witness an employment growth of 34.3% (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2005). Thus, issues of faculty satisfaction, retention, and persistence will become increasingly important for university administrators and education policy makers. The need to study faculty satisfaction at universities also stems from the fact that the intellectual and social structures of higher education are changing over time. Increasingly, women and minorities are more likely to occupy higher ranks of the professoriate. The purpose of this research is to explore and compare the job satisfaction rates of faculty members employed in research institutions with special attention paid to differences across gender and disciplines. The study employs data from the 2003 Survey of Doctorate Recipients, which is a biennially collected survey of doctoral awardees and is funded by the National Science Foundation.

Water Managers' Perceptions of the Science–Policy Interface in Phoenix, Arizona: Implications for an Emerging Boundary Organization

A potential water supply crisis has sparked concern among policymakers, water managers, and academic scientists in Phoenix, AZ. The availability of water resources is linked to population growth, increasing demand, static supply, land use change, and uncertainty. This article examines the perceptions of water managers working at the science–policy interface in Phoenix and discusses the implications of their experiences for the development of an emerging boundary organization: the Decision Center for a Desert City. Qualitative analysis of data generated through in-depth interviews with water managers uncovers two understandings of the intersection of science and policy: One perspective is a traditional, linear model with sharp conceptual distinctions between the two spheres, and the other is a recursive model recognizing fluid boundaries. Managers describe uncertainty as inescapable, but manageable. A prescriptive model for the science–policy interface for Phoenix water management is presented.

From enabling technology to applications: The evolution of risk perceptions about nanotechnology

Public opinion research on nanotechnology has primarily focused on judgments of abstract risks and benefits, rather than attitudes toward specific applications. This approach will be less useful as nanotechnology morphs from a scientific breakthrough into an enabling technology whose impacts on people’s lives come in the form of concrete applications in specific areas. This study examines the mental connections or associations US citizens have with nanotechnology (e.g. the extent to which people associate nanotechnology with the medical field, the military, consumer products, etc.), and how these associations moderate the influences of risk and benefit perceptions on attitudes toward nanotechnology. Our results suggest that the assumption that risk perceptions shape overall attitudes toward emerging technologies is simplistic. Rather, individuals who associate nanotech with particular areas of application, such as the medical field, take risk perceptions much more into account when forming attitudes than respondents who do not make these mental connections.

35 years and 160,000 articles: A bibliometric exploration of the evolution of ecology

We utilize the bibliometric tool of co-word analysis to identify trends in the methods and subjects of ecology during the period 1970–2005. Few previous co-word analyses have attempted to analyze fields as large as ecology. We utilize a method of isolating concepts and methods in large datasets that undergo the most significant upward and downward trends. Our analysis identifies policy-relevant trends in the field of ecology, a discipline that helps to identify and frame many contemporary policy problems. The results provide a new foundation for exploring the relations among public policies, technological change, and the evolution of science priorities.

Value Predispositions, Mass Media, and Attitudes Toward Nanotechnology: The Interplay of Public and Experts:

This study examines the factors influencing public and experts’ attitudes toward nanotechnology. Compared with the experts, the public judged nanotechnology as having greater risks and lesser benefits, and indicated less support for federal funding of nanotechnology. Experts used trust in scientists while public used religious beliefs as heuristic cues to make risk judgments. Although deference to scientific authority, science media use, and trust in scientists shaped perceived benefits in both groups, these heuristic cues influenced public perceptions to a larger extent than experts’ perceptions. Experts used relatively less cues to form decision about funding support for nanotechnology as compared with the public.

Making sense of policy choices: understanding the roles of value predispositions, mass media, and cognitive processing in public attitudes toward nanotechnology

Using a nationally representative telephone survey of 1,015 adults in the United States, this study examines how value predispositions, communication variables, and perceptions of risks and benefits are associated with public support for federal funding of nanotechnology. Our findings show that highly religious individuals were less supportive of funding of nanotech than less religious individuals, whereas individuals who held a high deference for scientific authority were more supportive of funding of the emerging technology than those low in deference. Mass media use and elaborative processing of scientific news were positively associated with public support for funding, whereas factual scientific knowledge had no significant association with policy choices. The findings suggest that thinking about and reflecting upon scientific news promote better understanding of the scientific world and may provide a more sophisticated cognitive structure for the public to form opinions about nanotech than factual scientific knowledge. Finally, heuristic cues including trust in scientists and perceived risks and benefits of nanotech were found to be associated with public support for nanotech funding. We conclude with policy implications that will be useful for policymakers and science communication practitioners.

Building Buzz: (Scientists) Communicating Science in New Media Environments

Public communication about science faces novel challenges, including the increasing complexity of research areas and the erosion of traditional journalistic infrastructures. Although scientists have traditionally been reluctant to engage in public communication at the expense of focusing on academic productivity, our survey of highly cited U.S. nano-scientists, paired with data on their social media use, shows that public communication, such as interactions with reporters and being mentioned on Twitter, can contribute to a scholar’s scientific impact. Most importantly, being mentioned on Twitter amplifies the effect of interactions with journalists and other non-scientists on the scholar’s scientific impact.

Factors influencing public risk–benefit considerations of nanotechnology: Assessing the effects of mass media, interpersonal communication, and elaborative processing:

This study examines the influence of mass media, interpersonal communication, and elaborative processing on public perception of benefits and risks of nanotechnology, based on a large-scale nationally representative telephone survey of U.S. adult citizens. Results indicate that cognitive processes in the form of news elaboration had a significant positive main effect on benefits outweigh risks perception. The influences of attention to science in newspapers, attention to science news on television, and interpersonal communication about science on public perception of benefits outweigh risks were moderated by elaborative processing, after controlling for socio-demographic variables, religious beliefs, trust in scientists, and scientific knowledge. The findings highlight the importance of elaborative processing when it comes to understanding how the mass media differentially influence public benefits outweigh risks perception of emerging technologies. Specifically, high elaborative processing emphasizes higher levels of perceived benefits outweigh risks than low elaborative processing. This study explores explanations for this phenomenon and offers implications for future research and policy.

Measuring risk/benefit perceptions of emerging technologies and their potential impact on communication of public opinion toward science

This study presents a systematic comparison of two alternative measures of citizens’ perceptions of risks and benefits of emerging technologies. By focusing on two specific issues (nanotechnology and biofuels), we derive several insights for the measurement of public views of science. Most importantly, our analyses reveal that relying on global, single-item measures may lead to invalid inferences regarding external influences on public perceptions, particularly those related to cognitive schema and media use. Beyond these methodological implications, this analysis suggests several reasons why researchers in the area of public attitudes toward science must revisit notions of measurement in order to accurately inform the general public, policymakers, scientists, and journalists about trends in public opinion toward emerging technologies.