title: Current research on public perceptions of nanotechnology.
abstract: This review explores research on public perceptions of nanotechnology. It highlights a recurring emphasis on some researchers' expectations that there will be a meaningful relationship between awareness of nanotechnology and positive views about nanotechnology. The review, however, also notes that this emphasis is tacitly and explicitly rejected by a range of multivariate studies that emphasize the key roles of non-awareness variables, such as, trust, general views about science, and overall worldview. The review concludes with a discussion of likely future research directions, including the expectation that social scientists will continue to focus on nanotechnology as a unique opportunity to study how individuals assess risk in the context of relatively low levels of knowledge.
authors.affiliation: School of Journalism and Mass Communications, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC, USA.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Besley