Instituional Trust,Risk Perception And The Public Acceptance Of Transegenic Rice Technology

Today, negative impacts of science and technology begin to be highlighted,arising heated discussion. Factors that affect the public attitude are of great worth for those controversial technologies since public acceptance significantly influences the development of technology.This study takes a survey that has 902 samples mainly from Hubei, Zhejiang, and Chongqing involved as the foundation. Based on the risk society theory and trust theory and using the genetically modified(GM) technology(the GM rice specifically),the study is divided into two parts: explore the influence of factors that gain public acceptance by using the binary logistic regression equation, comprehend the system among risk perception, institutional trust, and public acceptance of the transgenic technology by using the structural equation model. Institutional trust is composed of trust in expert, trust in the government, and trust in research institutions, and risk perception consists of perception towards health, social and economic, and environment and management. The study results are as follows:1. The education level and earnings of a family affect acceptance of the GM technology. Specifically, the lower level the education and the more the earning are,the easier the GM technology is accepted.2. Among the three measurement dimensions of risk perception, the social economic risk perception is outstanding. The more the public perceive the social economic risk, the harder the GM technology is accepted.3. The institutional trust significantly and positively influences the public acceptance of the GM technology, among which trust in research in institution brings the most positive impacts.. All the aspect of institutional trust are significant positive correlation with public acceptance, that means, the higher degree of trust, the more public acceptance of gm technology, and the influence of trust in research institutions on public acceptance is the strongest. Specifically, the higher the trust degree is, the easier the GM technology is accepted.4. The institutional trust, risk perception and public acceptance are closely related with risk perception directly affecting the institutional trust and the institution trust directly influencing the acceptance of the GM technology.Based on the preceding research conclusion, this study raises the following three suggestions to promote the development of transgenic technology. 1. Set up a reliabletransgenic technology information communication platform, thereby enhancing the scientific literacy of the public. 2. Reconstruct the trust system and promote the dual-way communication between experts and public 3. Tighten up the management and properly guide the public.