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Nanotechnology in the public eye: The case of Iran, as a developing country

Farshchi, P ; Sharif University of Technology | 2011

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  1. Type of Document: Article
  2. DOI: 10.1007/s11051-011-0274-6
  3. Publisher: 2011
  4. Abstract:
  5. Using survey data, public awareness of and attitudes toward nanotechnology are examined in Iran (N ≥ 759). Iran is a developing country with a national nanotechnology action plan for a ten year period starting from 2003 and has been active in the field of research and development of nanotechnology meanwhile. First, the results show that majority of people are still not familiar with nanotechnology and perceived risks posed by this technology are not considered to be a lot and most people feel its benefits outweigh the risks. The emotions toward this technology are of a hopeful and positive nature and this technology is looked upon favorably in Iran. In particular, our results reveals that although the level of trust is high specially in scientists to communicate the risks with the public, there are a great number who just have some trust not quite a lot of it. Knowing that it is a hard and time-consuming effort to manage a nation's view on nanotechnology, extensive research as well as collaboration with other countries is needed to effectively communicate the risks in time
  6. Keywords:
  7. Risk perception ; Action plan ; Iranian public risk perception ; Perceived risk ; Public awareness ; Research and development ; Risk communication ; Survey data ; Developing countries ; Public risks ; Nanotechnology ; Adolescent ; Adult ; Attitude to health ; Awareness ; Controlled study ; Demography ; Developing country ; Female ; Health survey ; Human ; Interpersonal communication ; Iran ; Major clinical study ; Male ; medical research ; Population risk ; priority journal ; Risk benefit analysis ; Scientist
  8. Source: Journal of Nanoparticle Research ; Volume 13, Issue 8 , 2011 , Pages 3511-3519 ; 13880764 (ISSN)
  9. URL: http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs11051-011-0274-6