Examining Consumer Behavior Toward Genetically Modified (GM) Food in Britain

Alexa Spence and Ellen Townsend

Risk Analysis, 2006, vol. 26, issue 3, 657-670

Abstract: This study examined behavior toward genetically modified (GM) food in a British community‐based sample. We used an equivalent gain task in which participants actually received the options they chose to encourage truthful responding. In conjunction with this, theory of planned behavior (TPB) components were evaluated so as to examine the relative importance of behavioral influences in this domain. Here, the TPB was extended to include additional components to measure self‐identity, moral norms, and emotional involvement. Results indicated that the monetary amounts participants accepted in preference to GM food were significantly lower than those accepted in preference to non‐GM food. However, the vast majority of participants were indifferent between GM and non‐GM food options. All TPB components significantly predicted behavioral intentions to try GM food, with attitudes toward GM being the strongest predictor. Self‐identity and emotional involvement were also found to be significant predictors of behavioral intentions but moral norms were not. In addition, behavioral intentions significantly predicted behavior; however, PBC did not. An additional measure of participants' propensity to respond in a socially desirable manner indicated that our results were not influenced by self‐presentation issues, giving confidence to our findings. Overall, it appears that the majority of participants (74.5%) would purchase GM food at some price.

Date: 2006
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (8)

Downloads: (external link)
https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1539-6924.2006.00777.x

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:wly:riskan:v:26:y:2006:i:3:p:657-670

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Risk Analysis from John Wiley & Sons
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Wiley Content Delivery ().