Kiel Working Papers, Kiel Institute for World Economics
No 1555:
Self-selection, socialization, and risk perception of technologies: An empirical study
Ingrid Ott and Ursula Weisenfeld
Abstract: We analyze students’ knowledge and risk perception of four
technologies. The aim is to find out whether there is a relationship
between area of study (self-selection) and progress of study
(socialization) on the one hand and risk perception of technologies
regarding health, environment and society on the other. The four technology
fields under study are renewable energies, genetic engineering,
nanotechnology and information and communication technologies (ICT). Key
results are: Irrespective of study area, study progress and gender, genetic
engineering has the highest perceived risk and renewable energies has the
lowest. This holds for all the risks studied (environmental, health,
societal risks). For most risk perception variables, advanced students
perceive lower risks than beginners, and students in a technical study area
perceive lower risks than students in a non-technical area. Factor analyses
show that common dimensions of risk are the technological areas and not the
type of risk. Regression analyses show that the variables influencing
perceived risks vary between the technological fields
Keywords: technologies, risk perception, self-selection, socialization; (follow links to similar papers)
JEL-Codes: O33; (follow links to similar papers)
39 pages, September 2009
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