Preferences Need no Inferences, Once Again: Germinal Elements in the Public Perceptions of Genetically Modified Foods in Colombia

Abstract

This paper explores the public perceptions of genetically modified foods in Colombia in a phase considered germinal: the topic was too novel at the time of research. The analysis covers media, informal conversations, and the word associations made by a sample of residents in the city of Bogotá. The results show that the public capability of associating with the topic, even intuitively, is due to the availability of culture themes, the primary categories that help conceptual elaborations, and the construction of common-sense theories. Three themes are proposed: natural/artificial, tradition/change, and health/disease. It is argued that cultural themes are not only cognitive, but also affectively laden entities, which explains the evaluative force expressed by social beliefs. Acknowledging the relevance of the non-attitude thesis, the author suggests that people associate novel objects with latent cultural meanings, explaining why words, images, and metaphors are readily available in elaborating social knowledge.

GM Crops in Hungary: Comparing Mass Media Framing and Public Understanding of Technoscientific Controversy

“…Some of the results on the divergences between the media framing and the lay understanding as expressed in the groups are in consonance with arguments that people can rely on other conversational resources; that audience schemas and analogous reasoning can 'actively and independently contribute to the interpretation of news accounts' (Hornig Priest, 1994, p. 177); and that people can apply existing cultural themes to make sense of topics on which they have little information (Parales-Quenza, 2004). The use of conversational resources other than the media content also contributed to the differences between the media framing and the lay construction of the issue, as participants brought up additional issues beyond the media reportage with their help (such as arguments regarding the unnaturalness of the technology, the lack of taste of GM crops, or social inequality issues).…”

“…Although in some of these cases the media coverage within the society could have contributed more to this theme being raised. However, in Colombia that was probably not the case, as there the media coverage was extremely minimal (Parales-Quenza, 2004).…”

“…4 In the quotations English names were used for the participants (in order to preserve confidentiality they are not translations of the original names). 5 This theme has been shown to appear in the construction of the GM issue by lay people in other societies as well and also in the arguments of stakeholders (Bonfadelli, Dahinden, & Leonarz, 2002;Hughes et al, 2008;Levidow & Boschert, 2011;Parales-Quenza, 2004;Shaw, 2002). Although in some of these cases the media coverage within the society could have contributed more to this theme being raised.…”

“…These were often brought up with the help of other conversational resources (Gamson, 1992): references were made to personal experience, cultural themes (Parales-Quenza, 2004) were evoked and analogical reasoning (Hornig Priest, 1994) was applied.…”

Dialogue guides awareness and understanding of science: an essay on different goals of dialogue leading to different science communication approaches

“…People who are not interested may take the "exorcism" basic approach, and therefore negotiation on the meaning and practice of "ground level notions" must clear the way to other concepts of science and technology that may make sense: science promotion with a public awareness target, using dialogue with a conceptual goal. Take the case of genetically modified food: Parales-Quenza (2004) found three basic cultural themes in the debate-natural/artificial, tradition/change, health/disease. These primary components allowed participants to associate with an unfamiliar subject on which they did have opinions.…”