More Information confirms your first impression

Reason.com has a summary of a study done by the Cultural Cognition Project at the Yale Law School. Researchers presented subjects with a brief explanation of nanotechnology, then polled them on whether or not they thought the benefits would outweigh the risks. 89% of respondents were able to form a strong opinion based on this small amount of information. The researchers then gave a subset of subjects more detailed information - about two more paragraphs. What they found was that the additional information merely confirmed the respondent's initial reaction.
So, for me this confirms the adage about only having one chance to make a first impression, and the power of tailoring messages to segments. The study segmented respondents into four groups: hierarchists, individualists, egalitarians and communitarians. Hierarchists trust experts, but believe social deviancy is very risky. Egalitarians and communitarians worry about technology, but think that social deviancy is no big deal. Individualists see risk as opportunity and so are optimistic about technology. Tailoring that first, initial presentation to each segment would surely have helped to form that initial impression.