Public Attitude Towards Human Gene Editing And Its Factors

In recent years,it could be seen that gene editing develops rapidly in recent years,which has made remarkable achievements in various domains like crop breeding,endangered animal protection,human disease treatment.In 2018,Jiankui He,a scientist from South University of science and technology,declared the birth of a pair of gene editing infants with natural immunity to AIDS,which has aroused national and world discussions.Gene editing has not been recognized by the majority of the public.However,it has suddenly become one of the controversial science all around the world.The negative effect of the incident is likely to be an obstacle to the sustainable development of gene editing.Therefore,it is necessary to understand how the public understands this kind of controversial science and how they form an attitude.Based on S-O-R model,this study examines the relationship between the public’s understanding and attitude towards human gene editing,besides the trust in human gene editing scientists is also considered as a factor to explain the formation mechanism of public attitude towards controversial science,which may deeply affected by Jiankui He‘s incident.This study conduct a survey to compare the differences between inside and outside of Shenzhen,sampling in Shenzhen and the other area in China respectively.Finally there are 808 questionnaires collected successfully.In this study,understanding of science is subdivided into factual knowledge and perceived familiarity,and attitude towards science is subdivided into risk perception,moral acceptance and support.Results show that attention to online media about gene editing baby incident is significantly positive to the mastery of factual knowledge and perceived familiarity;the more factual knowledge the public have,the higher the perceived familiarity of the public,and at the same time,the more factual knowledge,public perceived the human gene editing technology more potential risks to human society;The higher the level of perceived familiarity,the more morally acceptable for human gene editing;the more trust in human gene editing scientists,the less potential risks they perceive,and also leads to more morally acceptable and support for gene editing;risk perception mediates the relationship between trust in scientists and moral acceptance of human gene editing.However,there is no significant difference among understanding,attitude and trust of human gene editing between the public in Shenzhen and the public outside from Shenzhen.These results indicate that when confronting with controversial science,simply improving the public’s understanding of the technology can not significantly affect their attitude,while the key is to maintain the credibility of scientists.It is believed that improving trust in scientists can significantly reduce the negative impact of "science scandal" on the public attitude,and scientists should take the initiative to explain and clarify when necessary,which is helpful to maintain the trustworthiness of gene editing scientists,and what‘s more,prevent public opinion from becoming more negative.In addition,the role of online media in the dissemination of the content related to controversial science is of worthy.When necessary,as an informal channel,online media can help the public understand and master the knowledge of controversial science.The public who is participating in supervision is able to guarantee that science develops more healthily.