Public perceptions of transgenic products: the influence of the behaviour of laboratory scientists

This paper describes what has been learnt from over twenty years of social science research on public perceptions of risk. The case of GMOs, and in particular of Molecular Farming, is then used to illustrate an important limitation of the dominant approach used to in these studies, which assume and perpetuate the hypothesis that there is "objective", scientifically assessed risk on the one hand, and the "subjective" perceptions of the public on the other. In parallel, the classic approach assumes and perpetuates the hypothesis that Science is independent from society. A different approach to the study of public perceptions is proposed, which attempts to overcome these two false dichotomies.