Table 1.
Demographic and Domain of Expertise variables by expert group.
Figure 1.
“Risk versus Benefit” ratings for nanotechnologies in general.
Color-coded bars indicate the proportion of respondents in each expert group (NSE, NEHS, and NREG) choosing the indicated response.
Figure 2.
'Risk Perception' ratings for NSE, NEHS, and NREG expert groups.
Mean scores for each group are indicated with points on respective color-coded lines capturing 14 different nanotechnology scenarios rated between ‘almost no risk’ and ‘high risk’. Significant differences in means were determined using a one-way ANOVA with post hoc analysis, and are indicated with a, b, and c markings as outlined in the legend.
Table 2.
Loadings from a principal components analysis over seven rating scales averaged across individuals (VARIMAX rotated solution).
Table 3.
Loadings from a principal components analysis over fourteen rating scales related to 'Regulation of Risks' and 'Regulation of Nanotechnologies', averaged across individuals (VARIMAX rotated solution).
Table 4.
Hierarchical regression with Nano Risk Index as dependent variable.
Figure 3.
Mean scores for the 'Novelty' and 'Attitudes toward Regulation' indices for NSE, NEHS, and NREG groups.
The continuum from ‘high’ to ‘low’ represents a factor score range of +/− 0.5, representing one half standard deviation in either direction from the index. a, b, and c markings indicate significant differences between groups, where a: NSE and NEHS, b: NSE and NREG, c: NEHS and NREG. Tukey HSD post hoc analysis confirms that differences in index scores are significant across all three groups for ‘Novelty’ (p<.05; NSE: N = 180, M = −0.29, SD = 0.86, NREG: N = 103, M = 0.39, SD = 0.88, NEHS: N = 121, M = 0.11, SD = 0.85), and for ‘Regulation: Preference for Precaution’ (p<.001; NSE: N = 180, M = −0.29, SD = 0.82; NEHS: N = 121, M = 0.06, SD = 0.93; NREG: N = 103, M = 0.43, SD = 0.81). Post hoc analysis confirmed a significant difference between NSE and NREG groups only for ‘Regulation: Market-Based, Voluntary’ (p<.022; NSE: N = 180, M = −0.08, SD = 0.80; NREG: N = 103, M = −0.21, SD = 0.91).
Figure 4.
Comparison of perceptions of ‘novelty’ and ‘attitudes towards regulation’ across expert groups: a) Perceptions of the novelty of benefits versus novelty of risks. b) ‘Confidence in Markets and Voluntary Regulation’ versus ‘Preference for Precaution’.
* indicates significant difference in means between ‘novel risks’ and ‘novel benefits’ by paired t-test, where Novel Benefits M = 3.50, SD = 0.58, Novel Risks M = 2.89, SD = 0.65 for NSE group; Novel Benefits M = 3.3, SD = 0.62, Novel Risks M = 3.16, SD = 0.67, for NEHS group; and difference in means for NREG group is not significant.
Figure 5.
Comparison of Tech Risk Index and Nano Risk Index scores by expert group.
Paired t-test scores confirmed a significant difference in means between Tech Risk Index and Nano Risk Index for the both the NREG group (Tech Risk Index M = −0.08, SD = 0.99; Nano Risk Index M = 0.26, SD = 0.90), and for the NSE group (Tech Risk Index M = −0.04, SD = 0.82; Nano Risk Index M = −0.20, SD = 0.84). * indicates significant difference in means between Tech Risk Index and Nano Risk Index scores.