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Social
Equity and Distributional Impacts
of Science
and Technology
Experiments
In collaboration with the prime
contractor, Arizona State University, we developed and implemented a laboratory
experiment that examines the ability of lay persons to participate in
science-intensive decisions. The experiment was designed by Barry Bozeman and
Mary Feeney at RVM, Georgia Institute of Technology and administered at the ASU
Decision Theater which is directed by Dr. Ralph Shagraw, Jr.
The experiment
includes the exposure to two different type of media, written and audiovisual,
and tested the following research questions:
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the extent to
which expertise provided by a person of one’s own racial or ethnic group will
have an effect on the use of scientific information and on judgments about the
ethics of the proposed research.
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whether
individuals are more sensitive to perceptions of risk and judgments about
research ethics when they are exposed to different media (e.g. paper or
video).
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differences in
willingness to approve questionable research proposals due to race, income,
education and other demographic variables.
Participants are
asked to assume that they are members of a committee which reviews proposed
research studies and determines if the proposed studies are (1) ethical, (2)
safe, and (3) beneficial to society and fill decision forms on three research
proposals: a study on Asthma, one on Light Rail, and West Nile Virus.
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