Understanding public perceptions of genetically modified organisms in China: The role that heuristics play during digital media exposure

Abstract

This study explicates the role that heuristics play in influencing Chinese public perceptions of genetically modified organisms (GMO) when they are exposed to digital media. According to the cognitive–affective continuum of heuristics, trust in scientists and negative emotions about GMOs are a cognition-oriented heuristic and an affect heuristic, respectively. The statistical results of an online survey (N = 414) demonstrated that trust in scientists fully mediated digital media exposure and perceptions of the risks versus benefits of GMOs. In addition, negative emotions moderated the full mediation effect, showing that the indirect effect was stronger in individuals with low levels of negative emotions than in those with high levels of negative emotions. The mediating role of trust in scientists and the moderating role of negative emotions, the two heuristics applied in this study, indicated that when negative emotions were weak, laypeople were more likely to rely on scientists to judge the consequences of GMOs than systematically process the associated information by themselves. The findings have implications for reconsidering the importance of heuristic processing in building reasonable public perceptions of risk-laden technologies through the digital environment.