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Dissuasive effect, information provision, and consumer reactions to the term ‘Biotechnology’: The case of reproductive interventions in farmed fish
Biotechnology can provide innovative and efficient tools to support sustainable development of aquaculture. It is generally accepted that use of the term ‘genetically modified’ causes controversy and conflict among consumers, but little is known about how using the term ‘biotechnology’ as a salient...
Autores principales: | , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Public Library of Science
2019
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6762195/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31557188 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0222494 |
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author | Kulesz, Micaela M. Lundh, Torbjörn De Koning, Dirk-Jan Lagerkvist, Carl-Johan |
author_facet | Kulesz, Micaela M. Lundh, Torbjörn De Koning, Dirk-Jan Lagerkvist, Carl-Johan |
author_sort | Kulesz, Micaela M. |
collection | PubMed |
description | Biotechnology can provide innovative and efficient tools to support sustainable development of aquaculture. It is generally accepted that use of the term ‘genetically modified’ causes controversy and conflict among consumers, but little is known about how using the term ‘biotechnology’ as a salient feature on product packaging affects consumer preferences. In an online discrete choice experiment consisting of two treatments, a set of 1005 randomly chosen Swedish consumers were surveyed about use of hormone and triploidization sterilization techniques for salmonids. The information given to the treatment group included an additional sentence stating that the triploidization technique is an application of biotechnology, while the control group received the same text but without reference to biotechnology. Analysis using a hierarchical Bayes approach revealed significant consumer reactions to the term biotechnology. When the term was included in information, variation in consumer willingness-to-pay (WTP) estimates increased significantly. Moreover, some participants were dissuaded towards an option guaranteeing no biotechnological intervention in production of fish. These results have multiple implications for research and for the food industry. For research, they indicate the importance of examining the distribution of variation in WTP estimates for more complete characterization of the effects of information on consumer behavior. For the food industry, they show that associating food with biotechnology creates more variability in demand. Initiatives should be introduced to reduce the confusion associated with the term biotechnology among consumers. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-6762195 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2019 |
publisher | Public Library of Science |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-67621952019-10-12 Dissuasive effect, information provision, and consumer reactions to the term ‘Biotechnology’: The case of reproductive interventions in farmed fish Kulesz, Micaela M. Lundh, Torbjörn De Koning, Dirk-Jan Lagerkvist, Carl-Johan PLoS One Research Article Biotechnology can provide innovative and efficient tools to support sustainable development of aquaculture. It is generally accepted that use of the term ‘genetically modified’ causes controversy and conflict among consumers, but little is known about how using the term ‘biotechnology’ as a salient feature on product packaging affects consumer preferences. In an online discrete choice experiment consisting of two treatments, a set of 1005 randomly chosen Swedish consumers were surveyed about use of hormone and triploidization sterilization techniques for salmonids. The information given to the treatment group included an additional sentence stating that the triploidization technique is an application of biotechnology, while the control group received the same text but without reference to biotechnology. Analysis using a hierarchical Bayes approach revealed significant consumer reactions to the term biotechnology. When the term was included in information, variation in consumer willingness-to-pay (WTP) estimates increased significantly. Moreover, some participants were dissuaded towards an option guaranteeing no biotechnological intervention in production of fish. These results have multiple implications for research and for the food industry. For research, they indicate the importance of examining the distribution of variation in WTP estimates for more complete characterization of the effects of information on consumer behavior. For the food industry, they show that associating food with biotechnology creates more variability in demand. Initiatives should be introduced to reduce the confusion associated with the term biotechnology among consumers. Public Library of Science 2019-09-26 /pmc/articles/PMC6762195/ /pubmed/31557188 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0222494 Text en © 2019 Kulesz et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. |
spellingShingle | Research Article Kulesz, Micaela M. Lundh, Torbjörn De Koning, Dirk-Jan Lagerkvist, Carl-Johan Dissuasive effect, information provision, and consumer reactions to the term ‘Biotechnology’: The case of reproductive interventions in farmed fish |
title | Dissuasive effect, information provision, and consumer reactions to the term ‘Biotechnology’: The case of reproductive interventions in farmed fish |
title_full | Dissuasive effect, information provision, and consumer reactions to the term ‘Biotechnology’: The case of reproductive interventions in farmed fish |
title_fullStr | Dissuasive effect, information provision, and consumer reactions to the term ‘Biotechnology’: The case of reproductive interventions in farmed fish |
title_full_unstemmed | Dissuasive effect, information provision, and consumer reactions to the term ‘Biotechnology’: The case of reproductive interventions in farmed fish |
title_short | Dissuasive effect, information provision, and consumer reactions to the term ‘Biotechnology’: The case of reproductive interventions in farmed fish |
title_sort | dissuasive effect, information provision, and consumer reactions to the term ‘biotechnology’: the case of reproductive interventions in farmed fish |
topic | Research Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6762195/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31557188 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0222494 |
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