A Cross-Sectional Study of Attitudes toward Willingness to Use Enhancement Technologies: Implications for Technology Regulation and Ethics
Abstract
:1. Introduction
2. Methods
2.1. Participants
2.2. Survey Content
- “Do you want to use this enhancement technology?” (i.e., “willingness to use enhancement technology”).
- “What would you do if you wanted to use this enhancement technology but others did not?” or “What would you do if you did not want to use this enhancement technology but others did?” In doing so, we effectively examined the respondent’s willingness to use these technologies and how it differs from that of others (“synchronization with other people’s usage behavior”).
- “Would it be permissible for others to use this technology if you were unable to use it, even if you wanted to?” (i.e., “intolerance toward use by others”).
- “Should this enhancement technology be regulated by the government?” (i.e., “government regulation”).
2.3. Limit/Suppression Experiences
2.4. Participants’ Characteristics
2.5. Analysis
2.6. Ethical Considerations
3. Results
4. Discussion
4.1. Policy Implications
- (1)
- There was an agreement, to some extent, that government regulation is necessary for highly invasive interventions if enhancement technologies are to be used.
- (2)
- Impact of one’s surroundings: Most respondents aligned with others who did not use enhancement technologies, even if they wanted to use them. Thus, the behaviors of others had an effect.
4.2. Limitations
- (1)
- This study was an online survey; thus, the representative characteristics of the respondents are unknown.
- (2)
- The scenarios used were not well validated.
- (3)
- There is no information on how accurately the participants understood the scenarios.
- (4)
- A high percentage of respondents did not reveal their annual household income (20.8%), so it is unclear how income affected the findings.
- (5)
- The use of dichotomized responses might have led to a loss of information.
- (6)
- Some important variables (e.g., previous experience with enhancement technologies, religiosity, and technophilia vs. technophobia) may have been overlooked.
- (7)
- Lastly, this study used a cross-sectional design. One key limitation of cross-sectional studies is that the temporal pre- and post-relationships between items are unclear; thus, it is not possible to discuss causal relationships. However, in this study, all the items we included have a clear direction of causality, if any. Only one item, “desire to use enhancement technologies”, has neither a clear temporal relationship nor a clear causal direction with “attitudes toward other enhancement technologies”. Lastly, the discussion was limited to this study’s relevance.
5. Conclusions
Author Contributions
Funding
Institutional Review Board Statement
Informed Consent Statement
Data Availability Statement
Conflicts of Interest
References
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Scenario | Intervention Target | Intervention Means | Scenario Summary |
---|---|---|---|
A | Cognition (concentration) | Minimally invasive (MRI) | Improve concentration by conducting simple training under MRI before studying for an important qualification examination. Training for 2 h × 4 days necessary. Almost no side effects. Costs approximately JPY 40,000. |
B | Cognition (concentration) | Highly invasive (drug) | Improve concentration by taking drugs typically used to treat a specific illness before studying for an important qualification examination. Taken daily until test. Possibility of mild side effects. Costs approximately JPY 10,000. |
C | Emotion (personality) | Minimally invasive (MRI) | Improve positivity and cheerfulness to make a good impression at a job interview by conducting simple training under MRI. Training for 2 h × 4 days necessary. Few side effects. Costs approximately JPY 40,000. |
D | Emotion (personality) | Highly invasive (drug) | Improve positivity and cheerfulness to make a good impression at a job interview by taking drugs typically used to treat specific illnesses. Take daily until the test. Possibility of mild side effects. Costs approximately JPY 10,000. |
n | (%) | ||
---|---|---|---|
Gender | Male | 618 | (49.1%) |
Female | 640 | (50.9%) | |
Age (years) | 20–39 | 403 | (32.0%) |
40–64 | 551 | (43.8%) | |
>65 | 304 | (24.2%) | |
Highest educational attainment | Junior high school/high school | 414 | (32.9%) |
Vocational school, junior and technical college | 276 | (21.9%) | |
University/graduate school | 556 | (44.2%) | |
Do not wish to answer | 12 | (1.0%) | |
Household income | <JPY 4 million | 432 | (34.3%) |
JPY 4–8 million | 377 | (30.0%) | |
>JPY 8 million | 187 | (14.9%) | |
Do not know/do not wish to answer | 262 | (20.8%) | |
Residence | Non-urban area | 802 | (63.8%) |
Urban area | 456 | (36.2%) | |
Limit/suppression experience | Limit experience present | 401 | (31.9%) |
Limit experience absent but suppression experience present | 403 | (32.0%) | |
Both absent | 454 | (36.1%) |
Scenario A | Scenario B | Scenario C | Scenario D | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Willingness to use enhancement technology | ||||||||
Wish to use | 374 | (29.7%) | 293 | (23.3%) | 378 | (30.0%) | 297 | (23.6%) |
Do not wish to use | 884 | (70.3%) | 965 | (76.7%) | 880 | (70.0%) | 961 | (76.4%) |
Synchronization with other people’s usage behavior | ||||||||
Synchronize | 268 | (21.3%) | 238 | (18.9%) | 267 | (21.2%) | 238 | (18.9%) |
Do not synchronize | 990 | (78.7%) | 1020 | (81.1%) | 991 | (78.8%) | 1020 | (81.1%) |
Intolerance toward use by others | ||||||||
Cannot tolerate | 273 | (21.7%) | 273 | (21.7%) | 246 | (19.6%) | 269 | (21.4%) |
Can tolerate | 985 | (78.3%) | 985 | (78.3%) | 1012 | (80.4%) | 989 | (78.6%) |
Government regulation | ||||||||
Should be fully banned | 238 | (18.9%) | 270 | (21.5%) | 225 | (17.9%) | 252 | (20.0%) |
Does not need to be fully banned | 1020 | (81.1%) | 988 | (78.5%) | 1033 | (82.1%) | 1006 | (80.0%) |
a. Factors related to attitudes toward the use of enhancement technologies (n = 993) | |||||||
Willingness to use enhancement technology | Synchronization with other people’s usage behavior | ||||||
AOR (95% CI) | p-Value | AOR (95% CI) | p-Value | ||||
Intervention target | Cognitive (concentration) | - | - | ||||
Emotional (personality) | 0.988 | (0.825, 1.182) | 0.891 | 0.902 | (0.741, 1.097) | 0.301 | |
Intervention means | Minimally invasive (MRI) | - | - | ||||
Highly invasive (drugs) | 0.612 | (0.511, 0.734) | <0.001 | 1.010 | (0.829, 1.231) | 0.922 | |
Gender | Male | - | - | ||||
Female | 0.573 | (0.410, 0.800) | 0.001 | 1.194 | (0.876, 1.628) | 0.262 | |
Age (years) | 20–39 | - | - | ||||
40–64 | 0.762 | (0.525, 1.106) | 0.153 | 0.752 | (0.532, 1.062) | 0.105 | |
>65 | 0.765 | (0.495, 1.181) | 0.226 | 0.862 | (0.578, 1.287) | 0.469 | |
Highest educational attainment | Junior high/high and | - | - | ||||
vocational school, junior and technical college | 1.524 | (0.962, 2.412) | 0.072 | 1.193 | (0.788, 1.807) | 0.404 | |
University/graduate school | 1.938 | (1.323, 2.837) | 0.001 | 0.826 | (0.578, 1.179) | 0.291 | |
Household income (JPY) | <4 million | - | - | ||||
4–8 million | 1.134 | (0.792, 1.623) | 0.492 | 1.368 | (0.981, 1.908) | 0.065 | |
>8 million | 1.096 | (0.694, 1.729) | 0.695 | 1.482 | (0.970, 2.263) | 0.069 | |
Residence | Non-urban | - | - | ||||
Urban | 1.124 | (0.807, 1.566) | 0.489 | 1.056 | (0.777, 1.434) | 0.729 | |
Limit/suppression experience | Limit experience present | - | - | ||||
Suppression experience only | 0.718 | (0.487, 1.058) | 0.094 | 0.776 | (0.542, 1.110) | 0.165 | |
Both absent | 0.611 | (0.412, 0.908) | 0.015 | 0.726 | (0.504, 1.046) | 0.086 | |
Willingness to use | Want to use | - | |||||
Do not want to use | 7.994 | (6.203, 10.302) | <0.001 | ||||
b. Factors related to attitudes toward the use of enhancement technologies (n = 993) | |||||||
Intolerance toward use by others | Government regulation | ||||||
AOR (95% CI) | p-Value | AOR (95% CI) | p-Value | ||||
Intervention target | Cognitive (concentration) | - | - | ||||
Emotional (personality) | 0.878 | (0.717, 1.077) | 0.212 | 0.866 | (0.701, 1.069) | 0.180 | |
Intervention means | Minimally invasive (MRI) | - | - | ||||
Highly invasive (drugs) | 1.206 | (0.983, 1.478) | 0.072 | 1.270 | (1.027, 1.570) | 0.027 | |
Gender | Male | - | - | ||||
Female | 0.510 | (0.356, 0.732) | 0.000 | 1.204 | (0.829, 1.749) | 0.329 | |
Age (years) | 20–39 | - | - | ||||
40–64 | 0.667 | (0.450, 0.987) | 0.043 | 1.010 | (0.661, 1.545) | 0.962 | |
>65 | 0.340 | (0.209, 0.551) | <0.001 | 1.426 | (0.877, 2.317) | 0.152 | |
Final educational background | Junior high/high and | - | - | ||||
vocational school, junior and technical college | 1.606 | (0.987, 2.614) | 0.057 | 1.748 | (1.065, 2.868) | 0.027 | |
University/graduate school | 1.087 | (0.720, 1.640) | 0.693 | 1.214 | (0.791, 1.864) | 0.375 | |
Household income (JPY) | <4 million | - | - | ||||
4–8 million | 1.114 | (0.758, 1.636) | 0.584 | 0.937 | (0.627, 1.400) | 0.751 | |
>8 million | 1.176 | (0.720, 1.920) | 0.517 | 1.269 | (0.761, 2.117) | 0.361 | |
Residence | Non-urban | - | - | ||||
Urban | 0.853 | (0.595, 1.224) | 0.388 | 0.664 | (0.455, 0.969) | 0.034 | |
Limit/suppression experience | Limit experience present | - | - | ||||
Suppression experience only | 0.819 | (0.537, 1.249) | 0.354 | 0.892 | (0.573, 1.390) | 0.613 | |
Both absent | 1.025 | (0.672, 1.562) | 0.910 | 0.982 | (0.632, 1.525) | 0.935 | |
Willingness to use | Want to use | - | - | ||||
Do not want to use | 0.819 | (0.604, 1.111) | 0.199 | 0.310 | (0.216, 0.446) | <0.001 |
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Nakazawa, E.; Mori, K.; Udagawa, M.; Akabayashi, A. A Cross-Sectional Study of Attitudes toward Willingness to Use Enhancement Technologies: Implications for Technology Regulation and Ethics. BioTech 2022, 11, 21. https://doi.org/10.3390/biotech11030021
Nakazawa E, Mori K, Udagawa M, Akabayashi A. A Cross-Sectional Study of Attitudes toward Willingness to Use Enhancement Technologies: Implications for Technology Regulation and Ethics. BioTech. 2022; 11(3):21. https://doi.org/10.3390/biotech11030021
Chicago/Turabian StyleNakazawa, Eisuke, Katsumi Mori, Makoto Udagawa, and Akira Akabayashi. 2022. "A Cross-Sectional Study of Attitudes toward Willingness to Use Enhancement Technologies: Implications for Technology Regulation and Ethics" BioTech 11, no. 3: 21. https://doi.org/10.3390/biotech11030021
APA StyleNakazawa, E., Mori, K., Udagawa, M., & Akabayashi, A. (2022). A Cross-Sectional Study of Attitudes toward Willingness to Use Enhancement Technologies: Implications for Technology Regulation and Ethics. BioTech, 11(3), 21. https://doi.org/10.3390/biotech11030021