Consumer attitudes toward novel agrifood technologies: a critical review on genetic modification and synthetic biology

Consumer acceptance is an important driver of success in the process of commercialising novel agrifood technologies and their applications. It needs to be measured and considered throughout the whole process of technological innovations. Here, genetically modified (GM) food and synthetic biology (SB) are considered as two cases which can be employed as lenses to assess consumers’ responses to novel agrifood technologies. Risk and benefit perceptions were considered to be important determinants of acceptance. Application attributes, affect heuristic, ethical concerns, individual characteristics and social contexts were also discussed. However, some inconsistent findings in relation to factors impacting on consumers’ attitudes were mainly about the role of information provision, prior knowledge, and social trust. The EU and US regulations of GM and SB applied to food production were also compared. Based on the above findings, an explanatory framework for understanding consumer attitudes towards novel agrifood technologies in general, and specific GM- and SB-based applications in particular, was proposed. Limitations in existing research and implications for future studies were presented.