SIENNA D3.5: Public views of human enhancement technologies in 11 EU and non-EU countries

Based on a telephone survey of 1,000 people in each of 11 countries (EU: France, Germany, Greece, Netherlands, Poland, Spain, Sweden; non-EU: Brazil, South Africa, South Korea, USA), this report provides a snapshot of opinions in 2019 on human enhancement technologies and their impact on society. The report looks at overall feelings towards human enhancement technology as well as at four specific areas: technology to make people live to 120 years old; technology to make people more intelligent, technology to allow a person to choose a particular emotion; and technology to improve people’s moral values. It displays self-reported support and opposition levels for the technology areas, perceptions of who they ought to be available to, as well as perceptions on whether they should be permanent or reversible. The report also looks at perceived responsibility for ensuring the safety of human enhancement technology, as well as perceptions of specific societal impact.

It should be noted that human enhancement technology is a complex topic, and that despite cognitive testing and a pilot we cannot fully assess how the terminologies were interpreted by respondents. Therefore, results should be treated as indicative of individuals’ perceptions of the topic areas.