ABSTRACT
Increasing public concerns over the risks and the benefits of new technological developments have intensified the need for accountability of scientists, engineers, industries and governments over the research and development process. As the awareness over Scientific and Technological (ST) matters extend to the public sphere, their risks and benefits stopped being discussed merely within the closed circle of the scientific and engineering community. Hence, risk assessment started to involve intermediation of views reflecting the positions of various (sometimes incompatible) stakeholders such as media, NGOs, lay public and experts. Definition of risk concept has stretched beyond objective factual knowledge to cover “soft”, value-based views. Decision makers started to take into account the determinants of subjective risk perception to gain insight for efficiently building different concerns into the research and development process. The aim of this study is to examine how factors such as knowledge; trust; participation; familiarity with technology; worldviews and demographic variables affect the risk perception of ST.
