Purpose

Researchers at the University of Missouri, Southern Illinois University and University of Illinois have been assessing food supply chain designs to enhance public acceptance of agricultural biotechnology.

Motivation for the research is knowledge that risk concerns related to genetically-modified products is one of the most important determinants of consumer attitudes towards biotechnology products. Therefore, consumer decision making and behavior regarding these products is often analyzed and reported only in terms of risk perceptions.

Investigators suggest that if genetically modified products offer benefits that traditional products cannot offer (health benefits), the perceived benefits may outweigh the perceived risks related to genetic engineering.

This project will follow up on prior research that shows formation of attitudes towards "risky" products for some consumers is not necessarily determined by their perception of risk and the benefits related to the product as that it is determined by their aversion towards risk.

Therefore: This research proposes that the formation of consumers' attitudes toward and behavior related to biotechnology products can be more effectively modeled as a combination of risk perceptions, risk attitudes, and the interaction between them.

Trust in the information source has a significant impact on the attitude change by consumers who initially had negative attitudes toward genetic engineering. Admission of a certain amount of risk uncertainty increased trust in the attributed source by consumers with prior negative attitudes.

Generally, consumers perceive biotechnology information provided by the industry to be least credible. Therefore, it is critical for the industry to earn consumers' trust.

Impact

This study will make it possible to better assess how consumer attitudes are influenced by press coverage and other cultural factors.

The work will make it possible to disseminate the valuable insights gained to aid policy makers and industry as they deal with this very challenging issue. The project incorporates several mechanisms for taking the research findings to stakeholder groups.