Implicit and Explicit Attitudes toward Foods Derived from Genome Editing and Genetic Modification Technologies under Different Information Treatments

Abstract

ABSTRACT Genome editing technologies represent a potential revolution in plant breeding methods. However, there is a limitation in understanding the consumers’ attitudes toward foods derived from this novel technology. Especially, the lack of knowledge and confusion in differentiating with genetically modified (GM) products could potentially restrict further development of genome-edited (GE) foods. Therefore, a survey of 407 Vietnamese consumers was conducted to analyze the implicit and explicit attitudes toward GE foods compared to GM foods under different information treatments. The implicit association test (IAT) was used for implicit evaluation, and semantic differential scales were used for explicit evaluation. As our important results, under the context of condensed information, the implicit measure shows a high correlation between attitudes toward GE and GM foods. This result is one of the initial pieces of evidence that has been shown about the relationship among consumers’ attitudes toward GE and GM foods. And as our result has been pointed out that providing in-depth information help to reduce the correlation between attitudes toward GE and GM foods. This evidence is important to suggest effective risk-benefits communication to help reduce negative attitudes toward GE food and increase consumers’ acceptance.