Motivation

Team Chalmers Gothenburg suggested us to participate in their GMO survey. We asked 63 biologists and 50 respondents from general public to fill in the survey. Same thing was done in Sweden. Thanks to that we have the opportunity to compare GMO knowledge in Sweden and Czech Republic. Big thanks belongs to team Chalmers Gothenburg for statistical evaluation of all data.

Survey

We are pleased that we were able to collect 113 surveys. 63 from biologist - medical students of Faculty of Medicine in Pilsen, specialist on chemistry and biology from Faculty of Science Charles University in Prague, medical experts from Biomedical Center of the Faculty of Medicine in Pilsen and specialist on synthetic biology. 50 from general public - people on the streets, our colleges from The Department of Cybernetics of the Faculty of Applied Sciences at the University of West Bohemia and our families and friends.

We received the English version of the survey and translated it into Czech. Each respondent got his own copy. We filled the survey with everyone individually to see the immediate reaction and to answer potential questions. In case that someone had not know what the GMO stands for we told them to enable them to fill in the rest of the survey.

Most participants answered our questions willingly. Many of them even show interest in knowing more about GMO, synthetic biology and also our project.

Results

We sent all answers to our Swedish colleagues. They statistically processed data and evaluate the results. see their wiki

As we expected the biologist are more positive in the attitude towards GMO both in the Czech Republic and Sweden. This is mostly because they have more information and therefore can weigh up pros and cons. Differences in the attitude between genders in Czech Republic are not significant. However Swedish men seems to be more open to GMO them women.

People have received information from many different sources. Media is very frequent in both the Swedish and the Czech answers within all ages as well as within the academic world. The internet (mostly younger people) and friends are also common answers. School and social media seem to be a more common source of information, especially for younger people, in Sweden than in the Czech Republic. Scientific articles dominates in the academic field however quite a few people in the public have also gained information about GMO from articles. Most people of the public agree that they have not obtained enough information about GMO to really understand it and make rational decisions about it. On the other hand most academics claim they have obtained enough information.

Almost all academics knew that GMO can be used in more than crops while only half of the public, both in Sweden and in the Czech Republic, knew about this. Generally, people of the public are more reluctant towards using GMOs in food and crops but more positive about using it in medicine, fuel and other materials. Both academics and the public mostly agree that it’s important to do research on the effects of GMO.

Acknowledgement

Team Chalmers Gothenburg

Biomedical Center of Faculty of Medicine in Pilsen

Department of Cybernetics of the Faculty of Applied Sciences at the University of West Bohemia

Faculty of Science Charles University in Prague