Synthetic Biology: Public dialogue on synthetic biology

Awareness, perceptions and understandings
Overall, awareness was highest among the youngest groups, with 28% of those
aged 18 to 24 saying that they had heard a lot or a little.
Figure 4.1 Awareness of synthetic biology among different groups
100%
90%
80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
All Male Female 18-24 25-34 35-44 45-54 55-64 65+
4.3 Perceptions and understandings of synthetic biology
Almost half of the telephone survey respondents (49%) said “don’t know”or
“nothing” when asked ‘What words come to mind when I say synthetic
biology?’. This compares with just 30% of respondents to the same question in
the US study. Respondents over the age of 65 were more likely to say “don’t
know”or “nothing” compared with those in other age groups (60% compared to
the average of 49%). Those in social grades DE were more likely to say “don’t
know” or “nothing” compared with those in other social grades (60% compared
with the average of 49%).
The other responses to this question were first analysed by counting the
frequency of the words. The most common responses were “man-made”,
“synthetic”, “biology”, “genetic”, “cloning” and “body”which were all mentioned
between 30 and 50 times by the 1005 respondents 6 . This can be seen in
illustrative form in figure 4.2 below which presents the results in word cloud 7 .
The responses were then coded into thematic groups for further analysis. The
Figure 4.2 'What comes to mind when I say synthetic biology'
6. Common english words such as ‘and’ and ‘something’ have been removed from this list along with terms relating to
‘don’t know’ and 'nothing'
7. The more frequently a word appears the larger it appears in the word cloud. The word cloud was created by
http://www.wordle.net/.
<strong>Synthetic</strong> <strong>Biology</strong>: <strong>Public</strong> <strong>dialogue</strong> on synthetic biology 19