How will mandatory labeling of genetically modified food nudge consumer decision-making?

Abstract

•We identify heterogeneity in the characteristics of consumers who were nudged by the new choice architecture established by the National Bioengineered Food Disclosure Standard.•Heterogeneity in characteristics was examined in a manner that allowed the comparison of consumers who sought to avoid a genetically modified presence label compared to consumers who sought to gain a genetically modified absence label.•Results indicate that concern about genetically modified food safety is likely a better determinant of willingness to pay to avoid presence labels and gain absence labels than demographic characteristics.•While there was some overlap between the avoid and gain models, insight can be gathered by relaxing the assumption that consumers only seek to avoid or gain a label.