Enhancing the Broader Impacts of Developing a Social-Cognitive, Multilevel, Empirically-Based Model of Public Engagement for the Shaping of Science and Innovation Policy

增强开发社会认知、多层次、基于经验的公众参与模型的更广泛影响，以制定科学和创新政策

• 批准号: 1623805
• 负责人: Lisa Pytlik Zillig
• 金额: $ 4.22万
• 依托单位: University of Nebraska-Lincoln
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2016
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2016-07-01 至 2018-06-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1623805&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Enhancing; Broader; Impacts; Developing; Social

Emerging science and technology (S&T) innovations can trigger public controversies and signal the opportunity to work through competing public values, understandings, and misunderstandings to decide how to reconcile public values with new S&T. One way that Congress (21st Century Nanotechnology Research and Development Act , 2003) and the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (Open Government Plan, April 7, 2010) have suggested to approach this complicated task is to engage with the public about the ethical, legal, and social issues related to scientific and technological innovations. Currently, a wide range of public engagement techniques are used-including focus groups, public forums and deliberations, surveys, and social marketing. Different forms of public engagement involve different features designed to evoke meaningful public input. However, little is known regarding which public engagement options are effective under different conditions. How should information about scientific or technological innovations be conveyed? Is it better for participants to engage with information individually or in groups? Can and should participants be encouraged to think critically about the information presented? This project seeks to begin to answer these questions by applying insights from psychology and other social sciences to multiple simulated and controlled (that is, laboratory) "public" engagements about complex, cutting-edge, nanotechnology issues. The researchers collected substantial information from these engagement events. The analyses of the data from the engagements will enable researchers, policymakers, and the public to better understand the strengths and limitations of different approaches to public engagements and to build new insights about such engagements. This project will disseminate data and results from a set of four unique longitudinal studies. Studies were conducted across three- to four-week timespans, and involved more than 1,200 student participants. In each study, different social and cognitive aspects of engagement were experimentally manipulated to assess their impacts on common public-engagement goals. For example, studies varied the design of information about new technologies, and whether participants considered technology-relevant ethical, legal, and social issues individually or in groups. Effects of these manipulations were examined on knowledge acquired about nanotechnology, attitudes toward and perceptions of the development and regulation of nanotechnology, trust in nanoscientists and the policymakers who deal with regulating nanotechnology, and acceptance of policy outcomes. The current project will broadly disseminate each study's findings, as well as facilitate public access by providing detailed descriptions of the manipulated design features and supplementary materials that include the data from the studies, study materials, instruments, and data transformation and analysis syntax in multiple formats. These materials will foster further analyses by other researchers using alternative theoretical perspectives and allow theoretical development on topics beyond nanotechnology.

新兴的科学技术创新可以引发公众争议，并标志着通过竞争的公共价值观，理解和误解来决定如何调和公共价值观与新的科学技术的机会。国会（21世纪世纪纳米技术研究与发展法案，2003年）和白宫科学技术政策办公室（开放政府计划，2010年4月7日）建议处理这一复杂任务的一种方式是与公众接触有关的伦理，法律的，和社会问题的科学和技术创新。 目前，广泛使用的公众参与技术，包括焦点小组，公共论坛和审议，调查和社会营销。不同形式的公众参与涉及不同的功能，旨在唤起有意义的公众投入。然而，很少有人知道，在不同的条件下，哪些公众参与的选择是有效的。应如何传播有关科学或技术创新的信息？对于参与者来说，是单独接触信息更好，还是以小组的形式接触信息更好？是否可以并且应该鼓励与会者对所提供的信息进行批判性思考？这个项目旨在开始回答这些问题，通过应用心理学和其他社会科学的见解，以多个模拟和控制（即实验室）的“公共”参与复杂的，尖端的，纳米技术问题。研究人员从这些参与活动中收集了大量信息。对参与数据的分析将使研究人员、政策制定者和公众能够更好地了解不同公共参与方法的优势和局限性，并对此类参与形成新的见解。该项目将传播四项独特的纵向研究的数据和结果。研究在三到四周的时间跨度内进行，涉及1,200多名学生参与者。在每项研究中，不同的社会和认知方面的参与实验操纵，以评估其对共同的公共参与目标的影响。例如，研究改变了关于新技术的信息的设计，以及参与者是否单独或集体考虑与技术相关的伦理、法律的和社会问题。这些操作的影响进行了检查，获得有关纳米技术的知识，态度和看法的发展和监管的纳米技术，信任纳米科学家和政策制定者谁处理规范纳米技术，并接受政策成果。目前的项目将广泛传播每项研究的结果，并通过提供详细描述所操纵的设计特征和补充材料，包括来自研究的数据、研究材料、工具以及多种格式的数据转换和分析语法，方便公众访问。这些材料将促进其他研究人员使用替代理论观点进行进一步分析，并允许在纳米技术以外的主题上进行理论发展。