What is it about?

This study assessed adults in the United States. We asked them about their familiarity with several terms related to genetic engineering, and found that some people were very familiar while many were only somewhat familiar. We found that adults who reported more experience in agriculture through jobs, school, or elsewhere were more familiar with the terminology.

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Why is it important?

Scientists, educators, and communicators may use different terms when describing various research topics and not consider whether their audiences are familiar with or have the same understanding of the terms. Social science researchers may create surveys and other research instruments to assess attitude toward some of these terms and technologies without defining them for their participants, leading to complications in interpreting data. Defining terms so that people are all talking about the same thing is increasingly important with new technologies and scientific discoveries.

Perspectives

We often ask about people's background of race, income, and gender when trying to understand different perspectives on contemporary issues. However, we do not often ask about their experience specifically with agriculture, especially when it comes to food and natural resources issues. This is another way that populations may differ in their understanding of issues, opinions on those issues, and behaviors related to those issues, such as choice to consume or not foods that have been genetically modified, or support or not legislation related to allowing or labeling such foods and products.

Dr Kathryn A Stofer
University of Florida

Read the Original

This page is a summary of: U.S. Adults with Agricultural Experience Report More Genetic Engineering Familiarity than Those Without, Journal of Agricultural Education, December 2017, American Association for Agricultural Education,
DOI: 10.5032/jae.2017.04160.
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