Google search suggestions have shifted public perceptions about nanotechnology away from science to health worries, finds a science communications study. Search engine reliance on popularity rather than accuracy to steer people to information likely distorts societyâ??s view of science, politics and elsewhere, suggest the study authors. “The first thing a lot of people turn to for information is Google, and thatâ??s great because there is more information out there than ever,” says communications expert Dietram Scheufele of the University of Wisconsin, Madison, a co-author of the new Materials Today journal study. “But Google is shaping the reality we experience in the suggestions it makes, pointing us away from the most accurate information and towards the most popular.”
Office of Strategic Communication