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Public Understanding of Science
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Laypeople's viewpoints about the reasons for expert controversy regarding food additives

Anna Kajanne

Department of Social Psychology, University of Helsinki, Finland, Anna.Kajanne{at}Helsinki.Fi

Anna-Maija Pirttilä-Backman

Department of Social Psychology, University of Helsinki, Finland

The focus in this study is on the thoughts and opinions of the general public to the divergence in expert standpoints regarding additives in food. The relation of education, length of work experience, occupational field, gender, and people's ideas on this matter, as well as the changes in it, were of interest. Fifty-nine young and middle-aged Finnish adults were interviewed during the years 1986-1988 and again in 1993-1994. The semi-structured interview included straightforward questions about reasons for disagreements among experts regarding additives; in other parts of the interview people could spontaneously comment on the discrepancies. Three main categories of reasons for the disagreement emerged. General difficulty in obtaining scientific knowledge was the most common reason given. In the second interview round, a greater number of less well-educated interviewees expressed views in this category. The second category was various interest-related reasons. The increase of these notions was statistically significant among the academics. The least common category concerned differences in the caliber and personal background of experts. Especially people with long experience in working life increased their notions in all three categories. The results showed that people are well aware of the many factors that may influence the acquisition of scientific knowledge, as well as its use. Moreover, the results showed that the more education people have the more aware they are of the various interests. Because laypeople have experiences and viewpoints about various open questions and risks, it is suggested here that their opinions should receive more attention in the public discussion of similar issues.

Public Understanding of Science, Vol. 8, No. 4, 303-315 (1999)
DOI: 10.1088/0963-6625/8/4/303
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