College Students’ Social Images of Emerging Technology: An Example of Genetically Modified Technology

• Main Authors: Chia-Hao Chen, 陳佳豪
• Other Authors: Chih-Hsiung Ku
• Format: Others
• Published: 2012
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/3qkwvf

碩士 === 國立東華大學 === 課程設計與潛能開發學系 === 101 === With the development of science and technology, genetically modified(GM) technology in food production continued to generate controversies. The purpose of this study was to understand college students’ social image of GM technology, and adopted four points “GM technology cognitive”, “the general image of GM technology”, “The response of the GM technology”, and “the business decision behavior of GM technology” to analyze the social image of GM technology. In addition, the purpose of this study was to understand college students face the issue of GM technology, and adopted “messages contributors” to analyze different degrees of the trust.The research tool was a self-designed questionnaire “College students social image of GM technology”. The research participants were 527 college students. They were selected from universities in the east of Taiwan. The seven main findings were proposed. (1) College students' conceptions of genetically modified still need to be improved. (2) College students showed high level accepted that the GM technology, and the participants’ self-perception showed more rational in attitude and behavior than others in making the decision for GM related things. (3) In the GM products, the male showed high acceptance than girls. (4) College students wrote a reaction on the “College student social image of GM technology”, that “category of issues” and “subject major’’ had correlations. (5) The variables affecting the college students accepted GM products were religion, advocate nature preference or not, and pay attention to the organic food preference or not. (6) The variable affecting the college students worried GM products lead to sequelae were eating to know GM products or not. (7) College students tend to identity with genetically modified technology, and had the confidence of the medical community and the scientific community. Finally, the findings proposed two suggestions to GM technology education and future research.