Online survey on fluoridation attitudes

Dr Carrie Cornsweet Barber

Among the flurry of persuasive campaigns this election season, the debate on water fluoridation has been intense and polarised with both sides adamant about the merits of their respective positions and dismissive of their opponents.

A new collaborative research project will look at the relationship between knowledge about community water fluoridation, polarisation of opinion and where people access their information.

The joint project is led by Dr Carrie Cornsweet Barber of the School of Psychology at the University of Waikato and Associate Professor of Psychiatry, David Menkes of the University of Auckland.

The researchers are from different disciplines and do not have a public position on the merits of community water fluoridation.

Dr Barber knows there will be questions and controversy surrounding the water fluoridation issue after the research but the study aims to shed some light on how people make decisions about a divisive but important issue.

"We started to wonder why people are so polarised about this issue in particular, among all the information that comes with political campaigning," says Dr Barber. "With contradictory claims about what is fact and what is fiction, how does the public decide what to believe?"

Dr Barber and Associate Professor Menkes decided to conduct a survey, investigating attitudes toward community water fluoridation, what information people have about fluoride, and what has shaped their opinions on the subject.

"We are hoping this research will help us to understand a bit more about how people form their opinions about this kind of controversial health and community issue," says Dr Barber.

"Since getting into the study, I've realised how controversial and polarising the issue is."

Designing the survey was more difficult task than they first thought.

"We had to come up with factual questions that both sides could agree on the answers to, but even with consultation from proponents of both positions, it wasn't easy," says Dr Barber.

The survey response will be collected during the next few weeks, both from paper-and-pencil surveys in public places, and in an online survey open until mid-October.

The survey is available at http://psychology.waikato.ac.nz/PsychologySurveyonWaterFluoridation.htm