[Abstract or concrete: the importance of biotechnological descriptions in its evaluation]

Biotechnology is an environmental issue that can be evaluated with regard to the impact of the technology "as such" or with regard to specific products. We assume that the concreteness of presentations of biotechnology has an influence on evaluations of risks and benefits. We conducted two experimental studies. In Study 1, 99 subjects evaluated the strength and importance of pro and contra arguments that were presented in short texts on biotechnology. In study 2, 141 subjects were given short texts on biotechnology as well as 15 scales measuring evaluations of risks and chances. Datareveal an influence of the factor "concreteness" on evaluations of pro arguments and benefits as well as on evaluations of contra arguments and risks. But results point to an interaction between levels of concreteness of descriptions and their specific contents: in the pharmaceutical domain concrete descriptions are evaluated more positively than abstract descriptions, in the agricultural domain concrete descriptions are evaluated more negatively.