PUBLIC-ATTITUDES TO GENE TECHNOLOGY - THE CASE OF THE MACGREGORS(R) TOMATO

This paper reports the pilot phase of a three-year project, 'Public pe rceptions of biotechnology', conducted in Perth, Western Australia. Th e purposes of this pilot investigation were (1) to develop a computer- based method for investigating public perceptions of biotechnology, an d (2) to report the perceptions of four 'interested publics' about the Flavr Savr(TM)/MacGregor's(R) tomato, a genetically engineered tomato . By 'interested publics' we mean members of groups who are not expert s in the field, but have an interest because of their membership of th e group. We developed a computer-based database of information about t his tomato to stimulate, in interviews, respondents' articulation of t heir knowledge and perceptions of biotechnology. The database was a mu ltimedia package, based on a HyperCard stack on a Macintosh PowerBook 180C, with information about the tomato in ten different categories. T he data suggest that our methodology has the potential to provide a fr uitful approach to exploring the background knowledges and perceptions of different publics.