On the impact of trust on consumer willingness to purchase GM food: Evidence from a European survey

Abstract

Many researches try to explain consumer’s acceptance and opposition to GMO with focus on social factors. With a causal or an associationist theoretical model, different authors put forward the notion of trust as determining to define the position of individuals. Because as in the present case we could fear the simultaneity of decisions (trust, risk perceptions and acceptability), we have to take into account this endogeneity risk. With data from a European Survey (Eurobarometer 64.3 2005), multivariate probit was used to specify the importance of trust in the various organizations involved in the public debate on the acceptance of genetically modified foods on behalf of the “ordinary citizens”. We discuss this portrait of European citizens that shows them to be increasingly optimistic about biotechnology, while being divided on this question.