@article {Wagner:1 September 2002:0144-6665:323,
	author = "Wagner W.",
	author = "Kronberger N.",
	author = "Seifert F.",
	title = "Collective symbolic coping with new technology: Knowledge, images and public discourse",
	journal = "British Journal of Social Psychology",
	volume = "41",
	year = "1 September 2002",
	abstract = "Using data from policy analyses, media analyses and a European-wide survey about public perceptions of biotechnology conducted in 1996 and again in 1999, it is shown how a country's public develops an everyday understanding of a new technology (genetic modification) construed as potentially harmful by the media. To understand the reliance on images and related beliefs, we propose a theory of collective symbolic coping. It identifies four steps: first, the creation of awareness; second, production of divergent images; third, convergence upon a couple of dominant images in the public sphere; fourth, normalization. It is suggested that symbolic coping occurs in countries where a recent increase in policy activity and of media reporting has alerted the public; that this public show a high proportion of beliefs in menacing images; that these beliefs are relatively independent of pre-existing popular science knowledge; and that they are functionally equivalent to scientific knowledge in providing judgmental confidence and reducing self-ascribed ignorance. These propositions are shown to be true in Austria and Greece. Several implications of the theory are discussed, including social representation theory and public understanding of science.",
	pages = "323-343(21)",
	url = "http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/bpsoc/bjsp/2002/00000041/00000003/art00002"
}