GMO Labeling Policy and Consumer Choice

Abstract

Most scientists claim that genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in foods are safe for human consumption and offer societal benefits such as better nutritional content. In contrast, many consumers remain skeptical about their safety. Against this backdrop of diverging views, the authors investigate the impact of different GMO labeling policy regimes on products consumers choose. Guided by the literature on negativity bias, structural alignment theory, and message presentation, and based on findings from four experiments, authors show that consumer demand for GM foods depends on the labeling regime policymakers adopt. Both absence-focused (“non-GMO”) and presence-focused (“contains GMO”) labeling regimes reduce the market share of GM foods, with the reduction being greater in the latter case. GMO labels reduce the importance consumers place on price and enhance their willingness-to-pay for non-GM products. Results indicate that specific label design choices policymakers implement (in the form of color and style) also affect consumer responses to GM labeling. Consumer attitudes toward GMOs moderate this effect – consumers with neutral attitudes toward GMOs are influenced most significantly by the label design.

Effects of Digitalized Front-of-Package Food Labels on Healthy Food-Related Behavior: A Systematic Review

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From Vision to Reality: Lessons in Creating a Marketplace of Ideas

“…As quoted in Golder et al (2022), Nobel Prize Laureate Paul Krugman (2002) famously shared the following advice from his advisor: “Don’t reread the literature. Your head is already stuffed full of that material, and you’ll end up doing a small twiddle on someone else's model.” JM examples of such real-world-inspired topics include the use and misuse of genetic data in marketing (Daviet, Nave, and Wind 2022) and how GMO labeling policy affects consumer choice and willingness to pay (Kim, Kim, and Arora 2022). Other relevant topics point to underexplored theoretical domains such as company use of temporary marketing organizational structures (Ghazimatin, Mooi, and Heide 2021; Hadida, Heide, and Bell 2019) or the onboarding of salespeople through different socialization strategies (Wiseman et al 2022).…”