Public Perception of Risk in Developing Technologies: A Case Study of a Business Community in Manhattan

Abstract

A random sample of selected graduate classes (in an MBA program) was drawn to determine their feelings on five developing technologies: nuclear energy, nuclear weapons, robotics, genetic engineering and global mass communications. The population from which the selection was made is over eighty percent full-time employed in the New York City area and had recently been exposed to courses in probability and statistics.

In each technological area respondents expressed their feelings about the probability of occurrence of “worst case” and “least worst case” events associated with each technology. A brief scenario describing example events was included in the questionnaire.

Mean responses showed most concern for the nuclear areas (energy and weapons) and little concern for possible negative effects associated with robotics. Demographically, significant differences in overall expressed concern were noticed between sexes as well as among certain income brackets.