Public views on transformative technologies

This article discusses public views on transformative technologies. Global trust in science as an ideal is generally high. However, technologies represent artifacts released into the physical world. Ideally, they signify forward-looking purpose, though developed by unseen forces that no single person can fully manage or recreate. People will weigh everyday benefits and risks but also consider their meaning. Unsurprisingly, views across novel technologies are shaped by a range of social factors, psychological drivers and moral concerns, and there is no one-size-fits-all approach to measuring or integrating these in innovation. Broad support is likely to grow when both technologies and their governance demonstrate clear purpose, oversight and societal benefit, and weaken when opaque, weird, unfair or uncertain. Quantitative psychological research can blueprint cognitive and affective supports of trust, but qualitative research (psychological and sociological) gives thicker detail to map terrain needed when bridging science and society.