The Aversion to Tampering with Nature (ATN) Scale: Individual Differences in (Dis)comfort with Altering the Natural World

People differ in their comfort with tampering with the natural world. Although some see altering nature as a sign of human progress, others see it as dangerous or hubristic. Across four studies, we investigate discomfort with tampering with the natural world. To do so, we develop the Aversion to Tampering with Nature (ATN) Scale, a short scale that is the first to directly measure this discomfort. We identify six activities that people believe tamper with nature (geoengineering, genetically modified organisms, pesticides, cloning, gene therapy, and nanoparticles) and show that ATN scores are associated with opposition to these activities. Furthermore, the ATN Scale predicts actual behavior: donations to an anti-tampering cause. We demonstrate that ATN is related to previously identified constructs including trust in technology, naturalness bias, purity values, disgust sensitivity, aversion to playing God, and environmental beliefs and values. By illuminating who is concerned about tampering with nature and what predicts these beliefs, the ATN Scale provides opportunities to better understand public opposition to technological innovations, consumer preferences for “natural” products, and strategies for science communication.     

What do teenagers want? What do teenagers need?

It is widely accepted that adolescence is a developmental phase fraught with challenges, yet in the 1990s, teenagers face unique demands and difficulties. Dilemmas such as increased violence, drug and alcohol use, sexual involvement and AIDS pose problems not only for the teens themselves, but also for their families, teachers, health care providers and other caregivers.This article reports on the qualitative findings extracted from a study of over 3,700 teenagers from urban, suburban, and small city settings, describing the array of difficulties teenagers face today. The themes which emerged from the students' comments offer a compelling portrait of life as a teenager in the 1990s and help shape an agenda for understanding and responding to these myriad needsThis research was supported by grants from the Ohio Department of Mental Health (#93,1058A), Treu-Mart Fund, Nord Family Foundation, and the University at Albany Faculty Research Awards Program.     

BOOK REVIEWS

Book reivewed in this article:
The New Conservatism: Cultural Criticism and the Historians' Debate , by Jurgen Habermas. Ed. and trans. by Shierry Weber Nicholsen. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 1990, 200 pages, $19.95, hardback.
Deceptive Distinctions: Sex, Gender and the Social Order , by Cynthia B. Fuchs Epstein. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1988, 300 pages, $25.00, hardback.
Medical Work in America: Essays on Health Care , by Eliot Freidson. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1989, 274 pages, $30.00, cloth, $15.95, paper.
Philosophy of Science and Its Discontents , by Steve Fuller. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1989, 188 pages, $32.95, hardcover.
Friendship: Developing a Sociological Perspective , by Graham Allan. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1989, 174 pages, $16.95, hardback.
The Urban Web: Politics, Policy, and Theory , by Lawrence J.R. Herson and John M. Bolland. Chicago, IL: Nelson Hall Publishers, 1990, 512 pages, $22.95, paper, $29.95, hardback.
The Real Disaster is Above Ground: A Mine Fire and Social Conflict , by J. Stephen Kroll-Smith and Stephen Robert Couch. Lexington, KY: The University Press of Kentucky, 1990, 200 pages, $24.00, hardback.
The Power Elite and the State: How Policy is Made in America , by G. William Domhoff. New York: Aldine de Gruyter, 1990, 315 pages, $47.95, hardback, $19.95, paper.
Locality and Inequality: Farm and Industry Structure and Socioeconomic Conditions , by Linda M. Lobao. Albany, NY: The State University of New York Press, 1990, 291 pages, $49.50, hardback, $14.95, paper.     

Do Americans Trust Other Nations? A Panel Study*

Objectives. This study examines Americans' generalized beliefs about how much the United States can trust other nations, as well as changes over time in such beliefs. Methods. We analyze original panel survey data collected in 2001 and 2002. Results. Although only a minority of panel respondents expressed generalized trust in other nations immediately after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, even fewer expressed such trust when reinterviewed almost a year later. Social trust, political trust, and party loyalties predicted individual‐level change in this form of trust from 2001 to 2002. Conclusions. Declining trust in other nations may have important implications for public opinion and, ultimately, public policy regarding world affairs.     

BOOK REVIEWS

Book reviewed in this article:
Artificial Experts: Social Knowledge and Intelligent Machines , by H. M. Collins. Cambrige, MA and London, England: MIT Press, 1990, 266 + XIII pages, $19.95, hardback.
Images of Issues: Typifying Contemporary Social Problems , edited by Joel Best. New York: Aldine de Gruyter, 1989, 258 pages, $34.95, hardback, $16.95, paper.
An End to Shame: Shaping Our Next Sexual Revolution , by Ira L. Reiss with Harriet M. Reiss. Buffalo, NY: Prometheus Books, 1990, 287 pages, $21.95, hardback.
Structures of Power and Constraint: Papers in Honor of Peter M. Blau , edited by Craig Calhoun, Marshall W. Meyer, and W. Richard Scott. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990, 495 pages, $65.00, hardback.
Social Entropy Theory , by Kenneth D. Bailey. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1990, 310 pages, $54.50, cloth, $17.95, paper.
Sociological Theories in Progress: New Formulations , by Joseph Berger, Morris Zelditch and Bo Anderson (eds.). Newbury Park: Sage Publications, 1989, 416 pages, $42.00.     

4 The Physical Environment in Organizations

Abstract

We review empirical research on the physical environment in professional, organizational work settings (i.e., offices, meeting rooms, and design work spaces) from the past several decades. This research reveals no common elements of the physical environment (e.g., enclosures and barriers in work spaces, adjustable work arrangements, personalized work spaces, and ambient surroundings) that are consistently and exclusively associated with desired outcomes in these work settings. Instead, these elements are routinely associated with both desired and undesired outcomes. Based on these findings, we suggest that understanding the role of physical environments in organizations requires an understanding of common trade-offs in organizational life. Further, we suggest that the prevalence of such trade-offs is grounded in tensions that are inherent to the functions that physical environments serve (i.e., aesthetic, instrumental, and symbolic functions). We provide an outline of these tensions and trade-offs in relation to common elements of the physical environment, and suggest that researchers consider these tensions and trade-offs in their future research.     

Estimation of Tuberculosis Risk and Incidence under Upper Room Ultraviolet Germicidal Irradiation in a Waiting Room in a Hypothetical Scenario

Environmental control measures (ventilation, high-efficiency particulate air filtration, and upper room ultraviolet germicidal irradiation [UVGI]) are recommended to effectively control tuberculosis (TB) transmission from unsuspected TB patients in high-risk settings, but the effectiveness of their use is not often clear. This study presents a simulation model for a hypothetical hospital waiting room, in which the number of susceptible immunocompetent people in the waiting room follows a Poisson distribution (M = 5) in either low (annual number of TB patients = 5) or high TB risk settings (annual number of TB patients = 50), and used the model to evaluate the reduction of TB transmission risk by upper room UVGI. An exponential dose-response model was used for TB transmission and a two-zone model was used for evaluating the effect of upper room UVGI. Upper room UVGI reduced TB risk by 1.6-fold at 3 microW/cm2 UV irradiance in the upper room in the low TB risk setting and by 4.1-fold at 15 microW/cm2 UV irradiance in the upper room in the high TB risk setting. Use of upper room UVGI also reduced the mean annual new infection rate from 2.2 to 1.3 infections per year at 3 microW/cm2 and to 0.6 infections per year at 15 microW/cm2 in our hypothetical high-risk settings. The effect of upper room UVGI was sensitive to both vertical air velocity (air mixing) and UV irradiance level. Results from partitioning variability indicate that most variability of TB transmission risk came from waiting time in our hypothetical hospital.     

Variability and Uncertainty Meet Risk Management and Risk Communication

In the past decade, the use of probabilistic risk analysis techniques to quantitatively address variability and uncertainty in risks increased in popularity as recommended by the 1994 National Research Council that wrote Science and Judgment in Risk Assessment. Under the 1996 Food Quality Protection Act, for example, the U.S. EPA supported the development of tools that produce distributions of risk demonstrating the variability and/or uncertainty in the results. This paradigm shift away from the use of point estimates creates new challenges for risk managers, who now struggle with decisions about how to use distributions in decision making. The challenges for risk communication, however, have only been minimally explored. This presentation uses the case studies of variability in the risks of dying on the ground from a crashing airplane and from the deployment of motor vehicle airbags to demonstrate how better characterization of variability and uncertainty in the risk assessment lead to better risk communication. Analogies to food safety and environmental risks are also discussed. This presentation demonstrates that probabilistic risk assessment has an impact on both risk management and risk communication, and highlights remaining research issues associated with using improved sensitivity and uncertainty analyses in risk assessment.