• Korean Journal of Cognitive Science
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.305-324
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• 2007

We surveyed the emotional images of three kinds of scientific technologies in people's mind and the perception of technologies in terms of their risks and benefits. The contents of the image and their image values were used to estimate the affects on each technology. As an affect heuristic hypothesis predicted, people perceived the technology more beneficial or riskier depending on their overall affect. In other words, those who have positive affect on the technology Perceived less risky and more beneficial than those who have negative affect. On the other hand, those who have negative affect on the technology perceived riskier and less beneficial than those who have positive affect. We also found negative relationship between the perceived risk and perceived benefit of each technology. The implications of our findings that suggest affective heuristic were discussed in terms of the measurements of affect and the necessity of communication of scientific technologies with the public.