Acceptance of GM food—an experiment in six countries

Abstract

Bioscience, Biomedicine, Biotechnology and Society (BIOS) at the London School of Economics convened the group to design, analyse and interpret Eurobarometer 64.3 on Biotechnology.

Do Political Attitudes Affect Consumer Choice? Evidence from a Large-Scale Field Study with Genetically Modified Bread in Switzerland

“…However, there is also a strong indication that most people who bought food in the supermarket that contained a labeled GMO ingredient were not aware of having done so because they did not look at the label [63][64][65]. A study by Knight et al [66] addressed this problem by designing a natural quasi-experiment with road-side stalls selling fresh organic, conventional and 'fictitious' GM pest-resistant cherries (positively advertised as a 'spray-free GM product'); the products were sold by students in New Zealand and four different European countries. The study showed that consumers tended to buy more GM cherries when they were cheaper.…”

“…The present field study follows the design of Knight et al [66] but addresses its limitations by combining the registration of revealed consumer preferences at the market stand with an ex-post questionnaire that reveals the prior political preference of the customer. Instead of a fictitious GM cherry variety, we used genuine GM corn as an ingredient of our corn bread.…”

“…Unlike in previous experiments and field studies, where the members of the research team were selling the product [66], we recruited the selling groups in the region where the bread was sold. These selling groups could not easily be linked to the media stereotype of industry-supporting GMO advocates or of people conducting a scientific experiment (perceived as out-groups).…”

“…For example, in response to critical consumer inquiries, they were asked to admit that there is public controversy over GM food but also to point out that consumers should have the right to make their own choice. The resulting transparency and freedom of choice may lead the consumer to a more lenient and open-minded evaluation of the minority position [68][69][70][71] and make him or her more interested in the product since the selling group is associated with the in-group rather than the out-group [66]. The experience of ambivalence that can result from this incongruent pairing of higher and lower mental construals may motivate the search for corrective information [41].…”

Consumer choice

“…[11][12][13][14][15] The studies showed that Europeans have a negative explicit attitude toward genetically modified food whereas their implicit attitude is more positive. 16 It is suggested that these positive attitudes might enhance the behavioral intention of people toward the purchase of GM food.…”