In the science communication literature, we can easily notice the persistence of the knowledge-attitudes model (or the deficit model) that attributes the lack of public support to a lack of scientific knowledge. However, there has also been a continuing debate over the roles of scientific knowledge in explaining public attitudes towards specific controversial science and technologies. Using the data from an American nationwide survey, this study examined the variety of antecedents of the public acceptance of human gene editing (HGE), including scientific knowledge, attitudes towards science, risk-benefit perceptions of HGE, and belief in human evolution. Our findings illuminate how scientific knowledge indirectly influenced the public acceptance of HGE through a variety of mediating variables (such as attitudes towards science, risk perceptions of HGE, and benefit perceptions of HGE), though it did not directly influence this acceptance. The findings also reveal some moderating effects of belief in human evolution on the relationships among the above variables, serving as a ‘perceptual filter’ in the case of HGE. These findings revisit and extend the persistent but simplified knowledge-attitudes model and provide new insights into the complicated process of public attitude formation about such controversial technologies as HGE.

在科学传播文献中，我们可以很容易地注意到知识态度模型（或赤字模型）的持续存在，该模型将缺乏公众支持归因于缺乏科学知识。然而，关于科学知识在解释公众对特定有争议的科学和技术的态度方面的作用，也存在持续的争论。本研究使用来自美国全国性调查的数据，考察了公众接受人类基因编辑 (HGE) 的各种前因，包括科学知识、对科学的态度、对 HGE 的风险收益认知以及对人类进化的信念。我们的研究结果阐明了科学知识如何通过各种中介变量（例如对科学的态度、HGE 的风险认知和 HGE 的收益认知），尽管它并没有直接影响这种接受度。研究结果还揭示了人类进化信念对上述变量之间关系的一些调节作用，在 HGE 的情况下充当“感知过滤器”。这些发现重新审视和扩展了持久但简化的知识态度模型，并为公众对 HGE 等有争议技术的态度形成的复杂过程提供了新的见解。