Explaining attitudes toward genetically modified foods in the European Union

This article examines the factors that condition citizens’ attitudes toward genetically modified (GM) foods by considering individual-level attitudes in 15 European Union member states. Previous research has shown that European attitudes toward GM foods are influenced by overall levels of scientific literacy, consumer exposure to media coverage, and broader socio-political preferences. This article seeks to expand on this literature by testing some of these explanations in a multivariate analysis. To test our propositions, we develop and estimate a logistic regression model using data derived from Eurobarometer surveys. While the sources of information that people value and their attitudes toward EU policy in related areas explain to some extent support for GM foods, our strongest finding confirms the importance of public understanding of science as a basis for support for this emerging technology.

[1]  David G. Victor,et al.  Technological Innovation and Economic Performance , 2021 .

[2]  G. Shaffer,et al.  When Cooperation Fails: The International Law and Politics of Genetically Modified Foods , 2009 .

[3]  The Rise and Fall of the Media Establishment , 2002 .

[4]  X. Tinguely.  Innovation and Economic Performance , 2013 .

[5]  FROM THE COMMISSION on the precautionary principle , 2022 .

[6]  Jonathan B. Wiener,et al.  Comparing precaution in the United States and Europe , 2002 .

[7]  Norman R. Luttbeg.  The Rational Public: Fifty Years of Trends in Americans' Policy Preferences . By Benjamin I. Page and Robert Y. Shapiro. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992. Pp. 489. $59.95 hard, $19.95 paper.) , 1993 .

[8]  Benjamin I. Page,et al.  The Rational Public: Fifty Years of Trends in Americans' Policy Preferences , 1992 .

[9]  Elizabeth H. McEneaney,et al.  The Worldwide Cachet of Scientific Literacy. , 2003 .

[10]  Jeremy Rifkin,et al.  The Biotech Century: Harnessing the Gene and Remaking the World , 1998, Nature Medicine.

[11]  George Gaskell,et al.  Europeans and biotechnology in 2002 - Eurobarometer 58.0 : A report to the EC Directorate General for Research from the project "Life Sciences in European Society" , 2003 .

[12]  J. Lassen,et al.  Europeans and Biotechnology in 2002 , 2003 .

[13]  David C. Mowery,et al.  Sources of Industrial Leadership , 1999 .

[14]  J. Gutteling.  Mazur’s Hypothesis on Technology Controversy and Media , 2005 .

[15]  J. Zaller,et al.  The Nature and Origins of Mass Opinion. , 1992 .

[16]  L. Bredahl.  Determinants of Consumer Attitudes and Purchase Intentions With Regard to Genetically Modified Food – Results of a Cross-National Survey , 2001 .

[17]  Allan Mazur,et al.  Media Coverage and Public Opinion on Scientific Controversies , 1981 .

[18]  M. Shamos,et al.  The Myth of Scientific Literacy , 1995 .

[19]  Enzo Loner,et al.  The Importance of Having a Different Opinion Europeans and GM foods* , 2008, European Journal of Sociology.

[20]  M. Bauer.  Public Perceptions and Mass Media in the Biotechnology Controversy , 2005 .

[21]  M. Lawrence.  Food Politics: How the Food Industry Influences Nutrition and Health , 2007 .

[22]  J. Shanahan.  The Polls-Trends: Attitudes about Agricultural Biotechnology and Genetically Modified Organisms. , 2001, Public opinion quarterly.

[23]  D. Rucinski.  The Nature and Origins of Mass Opinion. , 1994 .

[24]  Jon D. Miller.  The measurement of civic scientific literacy , 1998 .

[25]  A. Persidis.  Agricultural biotechnology , 1991, Nature Biotechnology.

[26]  G. Shaffer,et al.  Transatlantic Governance in the Global Economy , 2001 .

[27]  Frank Vibert.  Transatlantic Governance in the Global Economy. Mark A. Pollack and Gregory C. Shaffer, eds. Rowman and Littlefield, Lanham, MD. $75.00 cloth; $29.95 paper , 2001, Journal of Public Policy.

[28]  G. Shaffer,et al.  When Cooperation Fails , 2009 .

[29]  William Schneider,et al.  The Confidence Gap: Business, Labor, and Government in the Public Mind. , 1984 .

[30]  N. L. Innes.  Global Status of Commercialized Biotech/GM Crops: 2005. ISAAA Briefs No. 34. By C. James. Ithaca, NY, USA: ISAAA (2005), pp. 46, US$50.00. ISBN 1-892456-38-9 , 2006, Experimental Agriculture.

[31]  J. Beatty,et al.  The Politics of Internet Communication , 2004 .

[32]  K. Prewitt.  The Public and Science Policy , 1982 .

[33]  G. King,et al.  Unifying Political Methodology: The Likelihood Theory of Statistical Inference , 1989 .

[34]  T. Liao.  Interpreting Probability Models: Logit, Probit, and Other Generalized Linear Models , 1994 .

[35]  Rebecca Henderson,et al.  Sources of Industrial Leadership: The Pharmaceutical Industry and the Revolution in Molecular Biology: Interactions Among Scientific, Institutional, and Organizational Change , 1999 .

[36]  Joachim Scholderer.  The GM foods debate in Europe: history, regulatory solutions, and consumer response research , 2005 .

[37]  Clive James,et al.  ISAAA Briefs brief 41 Global status of Commercialized biotech/GM Crops: 2009 , 2009 .

[38]  Elizabeth H. Mc Eneaney.  The Worldwide Cachet of Scientific Literacy , 2003 .

[39]  G. Gaskell,et al.  Worlds apart? The reception of genetically modified foods in Europe and the U.S. , 1999, Science.

[40]  E. Einsiedel,et al.  MENTAL MAPS OF SCIENCE: KNOWLEDGE AND ATTITUDES AMONG CANADIAN ADULTS , 1994 .

[41]  Stephen J. Ceccoli.  Pill Politics: Drugs and the Fda , 2003 .

[42]  Guy Cook,et al.  “Words of mass destruction”: British newspaper coverage of the genetically modified food debate, expert and non-expert reactions , 2006 .

[43]  J. Durant,et al.  The public understanding of science , 1989, Nature.

[44]  S. Iyengar.  Is anyone responsible? How television frames political issues. , 1991 .

[45]  R. Shepherd,et al.  Genetically modified food in the news: media representations of the GM debate in the UK , 2010, Public understanding of science.

[46]  J. Gil,et al.  Consumer acceptance, valuation of and attitudes towards genetically modified food: Review and implications for food policy , 2008 .

[47]  S. Keeter,et al.  What Americans Know about Politics and Why It Matters , 1996 .

[48]  Michael Strauss.  :Lords of the Harvest: Biotech, Big Money, and the Future of Food , 2002 .

[49]  Martin W. Bauer,et al.  Distinguishing Red and Green Biotechnology: Cultivation Effects of the Elite Press , 2005 .

[50]  J. Lassen,et al.  Ethics and genetic engineering – lessons to be learned from GM foods , 2002 .

[51]  Aaron Wildavsky,et al.  But is it true? : a citizen's guide to environmental health and safety issues , 1997 .

[52]  D. Mather,et al.  Acceptance of GM food—an experiment in six countries , 2007, Nature Biotechnology.

[53]  Safe Food: Bacteria, Biotechnology, and Bioterrorism , 2003 .

[54]  S. Bonny.  Why are most Europeans opposed to GMOs? Factors explaining rejection in France and Europe , 2003 .