About 30-percent of people in the developed world have at least a passing familiarity with the term, according to a study conducted by researchers at the University of Wisconsin, in collaboration with Pennsylvania State University and Cornell University. To about two-thirds of these people, however, nanotechnology is only recognized as a vague symbol for looming technological innovations, possessing new -- and perhaps even bizarre -- consequences.
Although the relatively low awareness of nanotechnology is fairly consistent across the U.S. and Europe, there is one striking difference between these two regions, said Dietram Scheufele, principle investigator of the study and University of Wisconsin professor of life sciences communication.
"More Americans fear the consequences of nanotechnology," he said.
The survey, which is currently under peer review, shows that only 29-percent of Americans believe nanotechnology is morally acceptable In the United Kingdom, this number is 54 percent; while in Germany and France, 62 and 72-percent of the survey's respondents either already considered themselves informed regarding nanotechnology or were educated through a series of 10 telephone calls.
"We found that people in the U.S. have attitudes about nanotechnology similar to other countries with high levels of religiosity," Scheufele said.
Scheufele's survey charted people's relative levels of religious faith and their moral beliefs regarding nanotechnology. It revealed an inverse relationship between a self-assessed importance of God in the respondent's lives and their belief in the moral acceptability of nanotechnology.
Here's a link to the UW press release.
Here's Scheufele's blog.
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