Consumer attitudes toward the use of gene technology in tomato production

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Abstract

Survey researches indicated that gene technology applied to the food sector is considered less useful than other applications. Recently, theoretical approaches, such as the Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA) and the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB), have been applied to assess attitudes towards using gene technology in food production. A study (n=1000 subjects), aimed at assessing beliefs and attitudes towards eating tomatoes produced by gene technology in the near future, was carried out in Italy. The basic frame of reference for design and analysis was the TRA. Measures of perceived behavioural control and moral obligation components were included into the model. Most of the subjects of the sample tended to hold negative attitudes towards eating tomatoes produced by gene technology. Also, it was found that there was a strong predictive link between beliefs and attitudes and between perceived behavioural control and intention of eating tomatoes produced by gene technology. The measure of moral obligation proved to be a no-significant predictor of intention. The Structural Equation Model was used for testing the expanded model. The finding of the application of the Structural Equation Model confirmed the contribution of more sophisticated statistical techniques for testing the basic framework of the TRA models in the context of food choices.

Introduction

Consumers will be the ultimate judges of emerging technologies in agricultural biotechnologies (Stenholm & Waggoner, 1992). They are increasingly questioning whether the technological change is good or needed, particularly as it affects food safety, and the environment (Hoban, 1996, Saba et al., 1998, Saba et al., 2000). Arguments both for and against the technology can be found in literature (Beck, 1992, Straughan, 1991). However, some evidence suggests that even if the public's knowledge has increased in the field of biotechnology, people are less optimistic regarding the capacity of the genetic engineering to improve their living conditions (Eurobarometer, 1996). Particularly, the genetic engineering process applied to the food sector is considered less useful than the other applications by all European countries (Eurobarometer, 1996). Perceptions of need and benefit were found to be important as determinants of acceptance of particular applications of genetic engineering in Italy (Saba et al., 1998).

Tomatoes are one of the most important crops in Italy. The production was over 58 million quintals in 1998 (INEA, 1999). Tomatoes are used either fresh or in a range of processed products. Recently, genetic engineering technology has been applied in order to produce modified tomatoes with resistance to cucumber mosaic virus, one of the most serious viruses of the plants forcing tomato production in Italy. Until now, the modified tomatoes and other genetically modified plants have not been approved for commercial cultivation in Italy.

Previous research has shown that public attitudes towards genetic engineering are likely to be influenced by perception of risk (Fischoff et al., 1978, Sparks and Shepherd, 1994), benefit (Fishhoff, Watson, & Hope, 1984). As with any emergency technology, the public reaction to the use of biotechnology in food production may be largely determined by perception of both risks and benefits with the technological processes. The findings of a study (Saba et al., 2000) showed that the perception of benefits outweighed perception of risks in the impact on general attitudes towards the applications of genetic engineering to food production in Italy. It is also likely that attitudes towards the technology are strongly influenced by the perception that consequences are not known (Sparks, Shepherd, & Frewer, 1995).

The theory of reasoned action (TRA; Ajzen & Fishbein, 1980) has been extensively used in food choice area demonstrating strong relationships between attitudes, beliefs and food choice (Shepherd, 1990, Shepherd et al., 1991, Bagozzi and Yi, 1989). The theory suggests that volitional behaviour arises from behavioural intentions, the latter being a function of a person's attitude towards performing the behaviour and his perceptions of the social pressure to perform that behaviour (subjective norms). More recently, Ajzen (1991) introduced a Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) adding a measure of perceived control to the structure of the TRA. This theoretical approach has also been applied to assess attitudes toward the use of gene technology in food production (Sparks et al., 1995). Empirical research suggested that, for certain forms of social behaviour, a measure of moral obligation is likely to contribute an independent effect in the prediction of behavioural intentions (Beck and Ajken, 1991, Gorsuch and Ortberg, 1983). The moral issues are very relevant to the social psychology of eating (Rozin, 1990) and findings from some studies revealed the important role of moral considerations in the domain of food choice (Raats, Shepherd, & Sparks, 1995). Attitudes toward the use of gene technology in food production were found to be predicted not only from a consideration of advantages and disadvantages of the technology but also from a consideration of level of perceived moral obligation (Sparks et al., 1995).

The objective of the empirical work reported in this paper was twofold.

The first objective was to assess the role of attitudes in influencing the expectation of eating tomatoes produced by gene technology in Italy, within the basic framework of the TRA. Measures of perceived behavioural control and perceived moral obligation were included in order to improve the prediction of the model. The others' attitudes component was included (Sparks et al., 1995) rather than the standard subjective norms because the latter was found less important than attitude in previous studies in the food area (Shepherd, 1990, Towler and Shepherd, 1992, Tuorila, 1987). Ajzen and Fishbein (1980) themselves questioned the ability of the subjective norm measure to assess perceived social pressure (Ajzen & Fishbein, 1980, pp. 246–247).

The second objective was to use a more sophisticated statistical technique, such as Structural Equation Models, in conjunction with the basic framework of the TRA applications in the domain of food choice. Multiple regression methods have been widely used to validate aspects of the Fishbein and Ajzen theory, whereas few studies have evaluated the theoretical statements in the context of structural equations with latent variables (Bagozzi and Yi, 1989, Bentler and Speckart, 1981, Saba and Di Natale, 1999, Sapp, 1991). In the behavioural and social sciences, where the phenomenon that is of interest cannot be observed or quantified directly, where all variables (dependent and independent) are subject to measurement error or uncontrolled variation, ordinary regression methods do not suffice. In this study, the behavioural components of the TRA were considered as latent variables or constructs, which are concepts observed only indirectly and imperfectly, through manifest variables. This means that each latent construct was modelled as a common factor underlying the associated measures. The causal relationships among variables were estimated by Structural Equation Modelling (SEM). SEM is a system of multiple regression equations that allow the causal relationships among variables to be estimated simultaneously .

Section snippets

Methods

One thousand respondents, over 18 years of age, were recruited randomly from the consumer panel of a market research company in the national territory. The sample was representative of the Italian population according to gender and classes of age. They were visited in their own homes and asked to fill in the questionnaire.

The questionnaire included the main components of the theory of the reasoned action along with questions on perceived behavioural control and moral obligation. The

Data analysis

Cronbach's alpha coefficients of internal reliability were assessed for attitudes, perceived behaviour control (PBC) and beliefs responses multiplied by the corresponding evaluations (Cronbach, 1951).

Principal component analysis (PCA) was calculated on the scores of six beliefs multiplied by their respective outcome evaluations using the orthogonal equimax rotation method of the factors (Chatfield & Collins, 1980), which attempts to minimize the number of variables that have high loadings on a

Results

The sample of 1000 subjects was composed of 517 females and 483 males. The mean age was 42 years (± 16.1 years). Only 25% of subjects had a high educational level and 7% had a degree, whereas 28% of subjects had the primary school level and 40% of individuals had the secondary school level (Table 1).

The mean scores of the variables used in the analysis are presented in Table 2. The item “positive b×e” indicated the beliefs×evaluations towards positive consequences of genetic technology, the

Discussion

The low values of Cronbach's alpha coefficients of the perceived behavioural control suggested the multidimensionality in the perceived control structure. The internal reliability of these items has been found to be low in other studies (Sparks, 1994, Sparks et al., 1992). Part of the problem with the reliability may be differences in the way that subjects of the sample conceptualize the notion of ‘control’ and how they conceptualize the notion of ‘difficult’ (Chan and Fishbein, 1993, Sparks,

Acknowledgements

The research reported in this article was carried out as part of the project POM A15 “Application of gene technology to the production of tomatoes in Italy“ funded by the Italian Ministry of Agricultural Food and Forest Resources.

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