AVERSION PRECEDING REJECTION - RESULTS OF THE EUROBAROMETER SURVEY-39.1 ON BIOTECHNOLOGY AND GENETIC-ENGINEERING IN AUSTRIA

In late 1994, we performed a representative survey on attitudes to bio technology and genetic engineering in Austria using the questionnaire applied in the Eurobarometer survey 39.1 of 1993. The results showed t hat support for genetic engineering in Austria was low compared to sup port in the rest of Europe. However, risks were perceived as being com paratively low, and the demand for government control was below averag e. Together with the very low level of knowledge and the reluctant opt imism towards new technologies, the data suggested that, in Austria, t he low level of acceptance might have been influenced by a conservativ e attitude to new technology rather than by any developed perception o f the associated risk. However, when in 1996 the first releases of gen etically modified organisms in Austria triggered widespread rejection, this was accompanied by a growing awareness of risk. Thus a more or l ess unreflected aversion to biotechnology seemed to precede risk perce ption in Austria.