Risk Perception Mechanism Of Genetically Modified Foods By Consumers With Different Knowledge Backgrounds

Food is the root of people's lives.China has a large population and limited land resources.Traditional agricultural cultivation tends to be tight to a certain degree and causes some damage to the ecological environment.The emergence of transgenic technology has provided new ideas for this issue.Genetically modified foods are emerging as a result of the use of genetically modified technology.Consumers have highly sensitive characteristics and have significant controversy.Approvers agree that the technology will help solve the actual food crisis and other issues.The questioning groups are worried that the technology will have too many negative effects on health and ecology.Genetically modified food is a product of modern biotechnology.Its safety evaluation requires specialized agencies to make it through special procedures and equipment,and the safety of genetically modified foods has a strong property of credit.Many ordinary consumers seem to be able to make their own assessments,and certainly and confidently reject genetically modified foods.Consumers' greater perceived risk of genetically modified foods not only affects their own consumption of genetically modified foods,but also affects the development of the entire food industry.In the current research on genetically modified foods,many researchers pay attention to the influencing factors of perceived risk of genetically modified foods.As the current research continues to deepen,scholars have gradually realized that perceived risk is not confined to individual characteristics but can also be influenced by many factors such as the economy,society,and culture.Individual characteristics of consumers such as gender,educational background,industry,etc.will all affect the risk perception of genetically modified foods.However,the analysis of consumers' different knowledge backgrounds on the risk perception effects and mechanisms of genetically modified foods lack sufficient depth.Therefore,the actual question is: Will different knowledge backgrounds form a differentiated risk perception,and what are the specific mechanisms for such effects?This paper uses a questionnaire survey to empirically investigate the risk perception mechanism of genetically modified foods by consumers with different knowledge backgrounds.Through combing and reviewing the literature,consumers are divided into consumers without biological scientific knowledge background and consumers with biological scientific knowledge background.Construct consumer's impact model ofperceived risk of genetically modified foods and look for intrinsic mechanisms that affect perceived risk.Empirical research found that:(1)Different knowledge backgrounds of consumers have a significant impact on the risk perception of genetically modified foods.Compared with consumers without biological scientific knowledge background,consumers with biological scientific knowledge background have lower perceived risk of genetically modified foods.(2)Consumers with different knowledge backgrounds produce risk perception of genetically modified food through heuristic processing.(3)Cognitive closure need adjusts the influence of consumers' different knowledge background on heuristic processing.In the case of high cognitive closure,consumers with biological scientific knowledge background are less instructive.(4)Cognitive closure need regulates the influence of consumers' different knowledge backgrounds on risk perception of genetically modified foods.In the case of high cognitive closure,the perceived risk of consumers with biological scientific knowledge background is lower.(5)Social trust regulates the influence of consumers' different knowledge backgrounds on heuristic processing.In the context of high social trust,consumers with biological scientific knowledge background are less enlightening.(6)Social trust regulates the influence of consumers' different knowledge backgrounds on risk perception of genetically modified foods.In the case of high social trust,the perceived risk of the consumers with biological scientific knowledge background is lower.This paper supplements the research on the field of perceived risk of genetically modified foods to a certain extent,explored the mechanism of consumer risk perception.Finally,it summarizes the practical implications of this article,the insufficiency of research,and the future research prospects.