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Outline
of SPERI's Work Relevant to Public Values and GM Crops & Foods
For the Agriculture and Environment Biotechnology Commission Seminar
London
16th January 2001
Prof
Glynis M Breakwell
More than 20 social psychologists work in SPERI which is part of the
School of Human Sciences at the University of Surrey. Much of the
research that has been conducted in SPERI over the last 15 years has
been concerned with the social psychological processes underpinning
risk perception, risk communication and decision-making under conditions
of uncertainty or conflict. This work has been funded by the EU, MAFF,
FSA, HSE, ESRC, and MOD, in addition to commercial and industrial
sponsors. In recent times, a growing proportion of this work has focussed
upon food hazards and molecular farming. This accelerated 18 months
ago with the establishment of a new allied multi-disciplinary research
centre, headed by Dr Dick Shepherd, on "Food, Consumer Behaviour
and Health" that encompasses biotechnologists, toxicologists,
nutritionists, management specialists, psychologists, sociologists
and economists.
Recent
projects have examined:
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The form and focus of public awareness and anxieties about food
hazards and innovations in food and crop production and processing;
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Responsiveness of public beliefs concerning food hazards to new
information;
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The disjuncture of risk perceptions and behavioural decisions regarding
food choice and consumption;
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The ways in which expert scientific advice and information are interpreted
by various segments of the lay public and the effects that scientific
controversy and conflict upon public acceptance experts;
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The social processes that determine the amplification or attenuation
of risk perception;
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The role of pressure groups in shaping public concerns;
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The factors determining how the media represent various hazards;
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Risk communication strategies that can be productively employed
by government agencies and by commercial organisations;
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Public acceptance of official acknowledgements of uncertainty concerning
the nature and level of risks associated with specific hazards;
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Public preferences for forms of stakeholder participation in policy
making;
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Methods for providing opportunities for participation in policy
making to "difficult to access" publics (for example,
ethnic minorities, low income families, the elderly).
The methods
used in our research are very varied. They range from experimental
and quasi-experimental studies to large-scale questionnaire surveys;
from ethnographies to secondary analysis and meta-analyses. Our multi-disciplinary
base now encourages the coterminous use of different methods. Our
philosophy is that the method is a means not an end.
In addition
to directing the work of SPERI, Prof Breakwell is the Programme Advisor
to the Food Standards Agency concerning research on risk management
and communication. This is a good position from which to gain an overview
of a considerable amount of the social science research on GM foods
and crops. From that perspective, it has been evident that there has
been a growing consensus among social scientists concerning the issues
surrounding public values and biotechnological innovations. In relation
to the work conducted in SPERI, the prime axes of consensus seem to
focus upon:
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The public willingness to tolerate admissions of uncertainty under
specific conditions;
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The complex impacts of scientific conflict upon public confidence
in expert advice;
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The inadequacies of the scientific community's appreciation of the
public's understanding of hazards and need for personal control;
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The need to understand further those parts of the lay public that
is not participating in the process of informing policy but is vital
to trends in consumption.
All of this would suggest that one of the issues that should be considered
by at the AEBC seminar is the manner in which all parts of the public
might be informed more effectively about the matters concerning GM
foods and crops which they need to understand in order to believe
themselves appropriately consulted.
G M Breakwell
January 2001
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