Influence Of Source Credibility Of Genetically Modified On Consumer Attitudes:the Mechanism And Empirical Research

Genetically modified(in short GM)technology's applying to food production areas was originally designed to improve food production technology,or promote the product variation,and eventually satisfy the diversity of consumer preferences.However,in fact consumers appear to be worried about the safety of genetically modified foods(?? GMFs),and be concerned about the uncertainty of GM technology.What is more,consumers'attitude toward the application of GM technology in food production areas is negative.Therefore,consumers need an effective communication environment of risks and benefits to help improve their cognition,perceived risks and benefits about GM technology and GMFs.However,actually,information of GM presents such following characteristics as wide information sources,inconsistent information viewpoint,lack in scientific basis of information contents,and negative media environment.Ultimately,all these have intensified consumers' concerns about the uncertainty of GM technology.Then,in the negative media environment,is the ways to acquire information active or passive,and what are the differences among the acquisition information sources for different consumer clusters?If there exsist significant differences among the influence of different sources credibility on consumer acceptance of GMFs?How do different information sources credibility and information contents credibility influence consumers'attitude towards GM technology applying to the area of grain production,and if it is affected by such intervening variables as perceived risks,perceived benefits and cognition?To answer these questions,this paper theoretically and empirically studies how information sources credibility affect consumers' attitudes.This paper's contents and related conclusions are as follows:Content 1:The status of GM information dissemination,and comsumers,passive acquisition and judgement of GMFs information.The objective of this section is to analyze the the status of GM information dissemination and the characteristics of elements of information dissemination,analyze the ways to acquire information and the presented features in acquisition of information sources by different consumer clusters,and analyze the credibility of different information sources,content and channels.The results show that the characteristics of elements of information dissemination show the following features:people gradually become rational and most of them see attitude,diversified information sources with inconsistent viewpoints,negative information content lacking scientific support diversified information channel with emerging media becoming main stream.The study also found that at present people use passive ways to acquire information and there exist distinct differences among acquisition of information sources in different subsidiary markets,but there exist similarity in channels to acquire information.In addition,there exist distinct differences among the credibility of different information sources,contents and channels that used by consumers.Content 2:The empirical study of information sources credibility's impact on consumer acceptance of GMFs.The objective of this section is to examine the effect of information source credibility on consumer acceptance of GMFs,based on the aspect of consumers' attitudes toward GMFs.The study conducts empirical analysis on factors affect consumers' acceptance based on urban consumers' survey data sets of Jiangsu Province.The results show consumer acceptance of GMFs are affected by such factors as information source credibility,general attitudes,gender and education levels.Firstly,credibility of biotechnology research institute,government departments about GM and GM technological experts have a positive effect on consumer acceptance of GMFs,which indicate that as urban consumers hold more faith in three information sources above,the more possibility exists in consumers acceptance toward GM soybean oil.Secondly,credibility of environmental organization have negative effects on consumer acceptance,which demonstrate that as trust in environmental organization increase,consumer acceptance of GM soybean oil will decrease.Thirdly,credibility of non-GM experts,food enterprises and anonymous information provider on the internet have little effect.Content 3:The empirical study of information sources credibility influencing consumers' attitudes toward GM technology applying in area of grain production:the mediating role of perceived risks and benefits.The objective of this section is to analyze how information source credibility,information contents credibility affect consumer attitudes toward GM technology application through the function of such intervening variables as perceived risks,benefits and cognition.The results show that perceived risk and perceived benefits have combined impacts on consumers' attitudes toward GM technology application,the former has a negative effect,and latter has a positive effect.What is more,both of them are affected by information source credibility,information contents credibility,general attitudes,and cognition about GM technology or GMFs.The conclusions are obtained as follows:?As consumer hold more faith in professional and reliable information source,such as biotechnology research institute,government departments about GM and GM technological experts,or more faith in information contents with positive attributes,consumers will hold less perceived risk and more perceived benefits,and then their attitudes toward GM technology application will become more positive.The total effect coefficient on consumers' attitude is 0.369 and 0.338 respectively.?As consumer hold more faith in non-professional and reliable information source,such as environmental organization,or more faith in information contents with negative attributes,consumers' will hold more perceived risk and more perceived benefits,and then their attitude toward GM technology application will become more negative.The total effect coefficient on consumers' attitude is-0.611 and-0.294 respectively.On basis of all the research contents above,author put forward the following political suggestions from the aspect that consumer have the demand for effective risks and benefits communication environment both in current and future,especially for effective information:Firstly,safety supervision of GM organisms and initiative of scientific propaganda should be further strengthened,and the negative media environment of GMFs information dissemination is in urgent need of being improved.Secondly,GM technology and GMFs'scientific propaganda should be carried out with a precise pointcut,and strictly obey the order that technology comes first and foods comes second.Thirdly,regulation and supervision of GMFs' information source should be further strengthened.Fourthly,the selection of science popularization channels should submit to the principles of credibility,availability and sustainability.Fifthly,mandatory labeling policy of GMFs should be further improved and implemented.