title: Collective symbolic coping with new technology: Knowledge, images and public discourse.
abstract: Using data from policy analyses, media analyses and a European-wide survey about public perceptions of biotechnology conducted in 1996 and again in 1999, it is shown how a country's public develops an everyday understanding of a new technology (genetic modification) construed as potentially harmful by the media. To understand the reliance on images and related beliefs, we propose a theory of collective symbolic coping. It identifies four steps: first, the creation of awareness; second, production of divergent images; third, convergence upon a couple of dominant images in the public sphere; fourth, normalization. It is suggested that symbolic coping occurs in countries where a recent increase in policy activity and of media reporting has alerted the public; that this public show a high proportion of beliefs in menacing images; that these beliefs are relatively independent of pre-existing popular science knowledge; and that they are functionally equivalent to scientific knowledge in providing judgmental confidence and reducing self-ascribed ignorance. These propositions are shown to be true in Austria and Greece. Several implications of the theory are discussed, including social representation theory and public understanding of science.
authors.affiliation: Johannes Kepler Universität, Linz, Austria. w.wagner@jku.at
authors.forename: Wolfgang
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Wagner
authors.forename: Nicole
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Kronberger
authors.forename: Franz
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Seifert
mesh_terms: D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D001317:Austria; D006115:Greece; D006801:Humans; D008402:Mass Media; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D030781:Organisms, Genetically Modified; D011582:Psychological Theory; D011639:Public Opinion; D011640:Public Policy; D013561:Symbolism