Public attitudes to new technologies still a puzzle

Australia currently lacks a mechanism to gather evidence on the formation of public attitudes to the introduction of new technologies, particularly the formation of attitudes to nuclear energy technology.

This is a limiting factor in achieving informed debate in the development of a national energy policy.

These are key findings in a research project recently completed by the National Academies Forum. Its report, Understanding the Formation of Attitudes to Nuclear Power in Australia, will be released today at a CEDA function in Perth (details below).

Noting that a distinction needs to be made between ‘opinions’ and ‘attitudes’, the report highlights the crucial importance of a rigorously established base of community attitudes for any future policy and program development and highlights the absence in Australia of such a process for gathering of this kind of evidence.

http://www.atse.org.au/news/latest-news/141-public-attitudes-to-new-tech...

http://www.atse.org.au/resource-centre/National--Academies-Forum-Reports...