A mathematical approach in evaluating biotechnology attitude scale: rough set data analysis

Abstract

Individuals' thoughts and attitudes towards biotechnology have been investigated in many countries. A Likert-type scale is the most commonly used scale to measure attitude. However, the weak side of a likert-type scale is that different responses may produce the same score. The Rough set method has been regarded to address this shortcoming. A likert-type attitude scale was evaluated using the rough set method. Randomly selected 60 participants were given a biotechnology attitude scale and their responses to the scale items were examined using the method mentioned above. Participants belonging to a specific group were examined if they might also belong to another group in light of this method. Mathematical values of each sub-dimension and the extent to which a specific group accounts for the total variance in the overall dimension were calculated. Finally, the accuarcy of approximation for the high, moderate, low and very low sets are calculated as alpha(R)(Y)= 1, alpha(R)(O)= 0,8, alpha(R)(D)= 0,778, alpha(R)(CD)= 1 It means that the moderate and low sets are rough sets. Through reduction of attributes, "Public awareness of GMO, Ethics of genetic modifications, Ecological impact of genetic engineering and Use of genetic engineering in human medicine" sub-dimensions were found to be the indispensable sub-dimensions.