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Public engagement with emerging technologies: Does reflective thinking affect survey responses?
Daniel P Carlisle, Pamela M Feetham1, Malcolm J Wright2
1Massey University, New Zealand.
Public Understanding of Science (Bristol, England)
|July 7, 2021
Summary
Brief surveys accurately capture public opinion on new science topics. Encouraging reflective thinking did not change perceptions of climate technologies, suggesting current survey methods are valid for assessing public views.
Area of Science:
- Environmental psychology
- Science communication
- Public opinion research
Background:
- Debate exists on whether brief surveys accurately reflect public opinion on unfamiliar scientific concepts.
- Understanding public perception of emerging climate technologies is crucial for policy and adoption.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate if encouraging reflective thinking influences public perceptions of emerging climate technologies.
- To assess the validity of brief survey methods in capturing public opinion on novel scientific topics.
Main Methods:
- Experimental design using online surveys with participants randomly assigned to control, intuitive (fast thinking), or reflective (slow thinking) conditions.
- Manipulation checks were employed to ensure the effectiveness of the thinking-style interventions.
- Concept evaluation time was measured as an indicator of cognitive processing.
Main Results:
- Participants in the intuitive thinking group showed similar concept evaluation times to the control group, indicating a default to fast, intuitive judgments.
- The reflective thinking group did not exhibit significantly different results compared to the control group, despite successful manipulation.
- Post hoc analysis revealed that individuals with pre-existing strong views tended to take longer to respond, irrespective of prompting.
Conclusions:
- Encouraging additional thinking through survey design is unlikely to substantially alter public perceptions of emerging technologies.
- Brief survey methods appear to elicit stable and meaningful public perceptions, supporting their validity for assessing opinions on new technologies.
- Individual differences in opinion strength may influence response times more than experimental manipulations of thinking style.
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