Influence of Source Credibility on Consumer Acceptance of Genetically Modified Foods in China

Abstract

This paper examines the reasoning mechanism behind the consumer acceptance of genetically modified foods (GMFs) in China, and investigates influence of source credibility on consumer acceptance of GMFs. Based on the original Persuasion Model-which was developed by Carl Hovland, an American psychologist and pioneer in the study of communication and its effect on attitudes and beliefs-we conducted a survey using multistage sampling from 1167 urban residents, which were proportionally selected from six cities in three economic regions (south, central, and north) in the Jiangsu province through face to face interviews. Mixed-process regression that could correct endogeneity and ordered probit model were used to test the impact of source credibility on consumers' acceptance of GMFs. Our major finding was that consumer acceptance of GMFs is affected by such factors as information source credibility, general attitudes, gender, and education levels. The reliability of biotechnology research institutes, government offices devoted to management of GM organisms (GMOs), and GMO technological experts have expedited urban consumer acceptance of GM soybean oil. However, public acceptance can also decrease as faith in the environmental organization. We also found that ignorance of the endogeneity of above mentioned source significantly undervalued its effect on consumers' acceptance. Moreover, the remaining three sources (non-GMO experts, food companies, and anonymous information found on the Internet) had almost no effect on consumer acceptance. Surprisingly, the more educated people in our survey were more skeptical towards GMFs. Our results contribute to the behavioral literature on consumer attitudes toward GMFs by developing a reasoning mechanism determining consumer acceptance of GMFs. Particularly, this paper quantitatively studied the influence of different source credibility on consumer acceptance of GMFs by using mixed-process regression to correct endogeneity in information sources, while taking into consideration of information asymmetry and specific preference in the use of information sources.

What Do We Know About Chain Actors’ Evaluation of New Food Technologies? A Systematic Review of Consumer and Farmer Studies

“…Thereby, a higher education and/or higher income resulted in higher positive evaluation of novel food technologies (with respect to GM: Abdulkadri, Pinnock, & Tennant, ; Laros & Steenkamp, ; Pardo, Midden, & Miller, ; fortification: Brečić et al., ; Kavoosi‐Kalashami et al., ; Landstrom, Hursti, Becker, & Magnusson, ; and nanotechnology: Matin et al., ; Sodano et al., ). Other studies showed that consumers with higher education and/or income had a negative perception toward new food technologies (Chen, Liu, Nanseki, Li, & Chen, ; Giamalva, Bailey, & Redfern, ; Poortinga, ; Zhang, Chen, Hu, Chen, & Zhan, ; Zheng, Gao, Zhang, & Henneberry, ). Health care/ status: Both terms are often used with GM and functional food studies and results tend to show positive influences. We observed a positively perceived health status increased the likelihood to use a functional food ingredient (Cranfield et al., ).…”

Perception and Attitude toward GM Technology among Agribusiness Managers in China as Producers and as Consumers

“…Since activists have been spreading information about the potential risk of GM technology on social media [47], trust in the food system and regulatory institutions and knowledge of GM technology are important factors affecting consumers' attitudes about GM foods [48][49][50][51]. Consumers' attitudes toward GM foods are also influenced by social characteristics, such as age, gender, education, and individual's scientific background [46,[52][53][54].…”

Credible Sources of Information Regarding Induced Seismicity

“…To determine how to measure credibility, we reviewed literature from psychology, communication, and marketing. These fields have determined that the trustworthiness of the source and the source's expertise regarding the topic at hand are common, foundational elements of credibility [41][42][43]. When risks are novel, individuals are more likely to accept risky practices when they trust the information source promoting the seemingly risky behavior.…”

“…These ideas of trust, expertise, legitimacy, and credibility have been explored in a number of contexts, including Gustafsson's study [51] of how trust of governmental agencies affects acceptance of climate change policies and Zhang et al's [43] study that found trust and source credibility affects consumer acceptance of genetically modified foods [43].…”