Data from: Aversion to playing God predicts negative moral judgments of technology and science

This research provides, to our knowledge, the first systematic empirical
investigation of people's aversion to playing God. Seven studies
validate this construct and show its association with negative moral
judgements of science and technology. Motivated by three nationally
representative archival datasets that demonstrate this relationship,
studies 1 and 2 demonstrate that people condemn scientific procedures they
perceive to involve playing God. Studies 3–5 demonstrate that
dispositional aversion to playing God corresponds to decreased willingness
to fund the National Science Foundation and lower donations to
organizations that support novel scientific procedures. Studies 6a and 6b
demonstrate that people judge a novel (versus established) scientific
practice to involve more playing God and to be more morally unacceptable.
Finally, study 7 demonstrates that reminding people of an existing
incident of playing God reduces concerns towards scientific practices.
Together, these findings provide novel evidence for the impact of
people's aversion to playing God on science and policy-related
decision-making.