Over the past two years the Cultural Cognition Project at Yale Law School and the Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies examined the cultural bias toward nanotechnology risks. The goals were to understand whether and how cultural bias may affect public opinion toward nanotechnology. This examination could generate insights that could be used to form strategies for communicating scientifically sound information about nanotechnology in forms that make it accessible to citizens of diverse cultural outlooks.
Over the course of three distinct studies, the collaboration sought to explore the following subjects: affect and culturally biased assimilations, cultural credibility, and cultural message framing. All three studies are available together in Toward a Comprehensive Strategy for Nanotechnology Risk Communication.
Pew is no longer active in this line of work, but for more information, visit the Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies on PewHealth.org.