Technological stigmatism, risk perception, and truth

Technological stigmas can be a source of confusion and misunderstandings of the effect on public health and safety of technological activities. The result can be a gross waste of national resources to fix the ‘stigma’ rather than the real problem. Fueling technological stigmas has become a visible activity, especially among non-technical professionals. Further, it is not clear that these same critics are accountable for their influence on policy and practices that may adversely affect people's lives and financial resources. Their bad news of alleged high risk and incompetent technologists is more appealing to the press than the more technical and apparently boring news of finding engineering solutions to real problems.The issue of technological stigma is especially visible in relation to the environmental and safety effects of the nuclear and chemical industries. These industries are in an extremely defensive position because the stigmatizes put much more emphasis on their risks than on their benefits to society. There is the genuine threat of the denial of important technologies in the nuclear and chemical fields and a resulting loss of lives and resources. The actions required to better tell the whole cost-risk-benefit story of specific technologies have to come from all of the groups involved. The critics and stigmatizers need to be more accountable for their assertions, the technologists need to involve the public more in their consideration of technological solutions to environmental and safety issues, and the press needs to present all of the facts rather than just the sensational or ‘outrage’ part of the story.