Consumer Behavior towards GMOs and what it reveals about morality and fear in

Swiss politics

Philipp Aerni

University of Bern and ETH Zurich

Workshop of Value Communication of Novel Agro-technologies,

3-4 November, 2011, Munich

Content

3. Research Question

4. Experimental Design

5. Results

6. Moral Anxiety

7. Concluding Remarks

2. Theory

1. Introduction

NFP 59: A Swiss National Research Programme on the risks and benefits of genetically modified plants Main justification: GMOs banned from Swiss agriculture since the 2005 national referendum > but research should continue

My NFP59 Project: Giving consumers the freedom to choose among three types of corn bread (made with organic, conventional and GM corn)> Bt11 corn approved in CH since 1998, imported from Spain > Discrete Choice Model

1. Introduction

Comparing political attitudes with revealed consumer preferences > Ex-post questionnaire on voting behavior

2. Theory (1): High Level Construal of GMOs

The Political Nature (Schematic representation): GMOs as a proxy for more general fears - Right wing aversion (rural identity) - Left wing aversion (corporate business, risk)

Evaluative Judgment > Radical Cognitive Distinction Food with DNA technology (unnatural, unfair) (-) Food without DNA technology (natural, fair by default) (+)

Weak involvement (De-contextualized) - Lack of experience in the store/school/ the field - Low perceived economic importance - Exposure to constant warning messages in the media Conditioned feelings

Theory (2): Low-Level Construal of GMOs

Confrontation with a real GM product (contextual)

- Conceptual consumption (value-oriented) - Contextual and situational criteria (where?who?what?) Does the mere presence of GMOs cause negative feelings?

Evaluative Judgment Price, appearance, taste, sales group, market stand > curiosity/uncertainty, trust/distrust

Valence of contextual emotional stimuli

- Freedom of Choice (alternatives available) >+ - Sales Group is local ‘in-group’ (young/elderly) > + - Presence of GM food in a open market > - Cognitive dissonance

3. Research Questions

Do Political Attitudes affect Consumer Choice? - Does the mere presence of GM food turn

consumers off?

What factors explain consumer choice? (price, sales group, package size, location, etc)

- Are Freedom of Choice and Transparency a positive externality for consumers, even in the face of a GM variety?

- Is there a link between what people vote and what they buy?

- Does the consumer perceive something like moral anxiety when facing GM food?

4. Our Experimental Design

Market stands with three types of corn bread: made with organic/conventional/GM corn

Start in early summer 2008 with a control experiment (only organic and conventional)

8 Interventions with GM corn bread (fresh from the baker

3 price scenarios, 4 types of local sales groups

Ex-post survey after the purchase (an envelope containing a one-page questionnaire)

Experimental Design (8 times with 4 Sale Crews, 3 Price Levels)

Zürich I (Bahnhofstrasse)

Zürich II (Gemüsebrücke)

Biel/Bienne

Marktgasse

Bern

Münstergasse

Lausanne

Place St. François

Market Stand Prototype

Electronic

Cash register

Compartments

Decoration

Sales Team with Logo

following the ~80

Instructions people

of the protocol total

Bread bags with questionnaires

Label

Media Response

5. Results

Total Sales by Type of Corn Bread

Bio small

38%

Bio Big

11%GM small

16%

GM big

4%

Conv.Small

23%

Conv.Big

8%

Do Swiss consumers buy GM food?

20% revealed

Market share

- Yes, they do

23.7% bought at least one GM corn bread

(4960 Breads were sold to 3275 Customers!)

0

200

400

600

800

1000

1200

1400

Nu

mb

er

of

Bre

ad

s

Zurich

BS

Zürich

GB

Lausa

nne

Bern

Bie

l

Location

Number of Breads sold by Location

GM big

GM small

Conv.Big

Conv.Small

Bio Big

Bio small

Does it matter where it is sold (location)?

Moral Pressure to Buy GM Food

- No difference between french and german

locations but big difference within the city of Zurich

What explains consumer decisions? > Package size more important than product

0.1%

0.1%

0.2%

0.4%

0.5%

2.5%

4.1%

5.8%

0% 1% 2% 3% 4% 5% 6% 7%

Price

Customer gender

Customer nationality

Salesperson

Customer age

Sales location

Product variant

Package size

Effect size (partial generalized R-square)

Amount of variation in customer’s choices explained by the different predictor variables (based on partial generalized R-squares). In maximum likelihood estimation

Do consumers buy more GM corn bread if cheaper? > Price Matters – But not much)

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

140

160

180 Control experiment versus GM corn bread

intervention

Sale without GM corn bread (control experiment) Average Sale with GM corn bread

Does the mere presence of GM turn off consumers?

Clearly not, on average 30% more sales with GM on offer

Is there a link between voting (expressing a preference for a particular type of agriculture) and purchasing (preference for a product

that reflects this type)?

Questionnaire: Ex-Post Deliberation 989 completed Questionnaires: Response rate: 30,2%, Respondent Profile: 80% above 35 years old, 75% women

Vote in the 2005 Referendum on GMOs

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

Total Organic only Conventional

only

GM only

Respondents

Pe

rcen

tag

e%

Yes

No

Don't know

Political Preference by Location Crosstab

Political Preference

Total

Yes (in favor of

the moratorium)

No (against the

moratorium)

Location Zurich BS Count 54 81 135

% within Location 40.0% 60.0% 100.0%

Zurich GB Count 69 83 152

% within Location 45.4% 54.6% 100.0%

Bern Count 68 48 116

% within Location 58.6% 41.4% 100.0%

Lausanne Count 43 20 63

% within Location 68.3% 31.7% 100.0%

Biel Count 55 32 87

% within Location 63.2% 36.8% 100.0%

Total Count 289 264 553

% within Location 52.3% 47.7% 100.0%

Buying mostly

organic but voting

against the moratorium

Buying highest share of

GM but voting in favor

of the moratorium

Experienced Utility: Did it taste good?

Joint Evaluation / Single Evaluation

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

GM Corn Bread Conventional Corn

Bread

Organic Corn

Bread

very

bad

delic

ious

180 Joint Evaluation

807 Single Evaluation

Yes! All of them!

….but GM corn bread gets the lowest rating when jointly

evaluated and the highest rating when evaluated on its own

How strong is attitude-behavior consistency?

Expectation: Strong emotions,

Values expressed in purchase

However: Negative associations

in conflict with positive external

cues (transparency, minority,

freedom of choice).

attitude-behavior consistency

Rather weak!

- People cannot explain why they

oppose GM food

- No prior experience

>> Swiss consumers behave toward the GM variant no different than toward any other novel product

4. Moral Anxiety

Observation at Zurich Gemüsebrücke: Consumers had - the lowest share of organic bread during the

control run - The highest share of organic bread during the

intervention

> Was there a moral pressure to buy a organic bread in the presence of the GM corn bread?

Observations at the market stand (consumer response): Feeding trial with a dog, hitting the child, etc

The dubious morality of resisting GMOs

Purity of conscience (fear of ‘contamination’) Preventing change = «preserving innocence»

Political=Product Marketing by Retailers We tell you what you «should» buy

Do we talk of values or confirmed stereotypes? What are our baseline assumptions? Are retailers driven my moral principles or the appeal to low instincts wrapped in moral language?

«organic – because I am worth it» (ego-satisfaction)

Morals and Fear (Aerni&Grün, V&R Verlag, 2011)

Evolutionary psychology: The roots of moral anxiety (risk > fear of death, tabus)

Moral psychology: Feelings before reason, the unconscious before the conscious (moral dilemma on GM field trial with students)

Political Theology: Religious identity/life-style as anchors in a morally ambiguous World > radical distinction of out-group/in-group

Philosophy/political economy: instrumental use of moral systems (Nietzsche, Dürrenmatt)

4. Conclusions

No link between high-level (political attitude) and low-level (consumer choice) construal

Freedom of Choice is welcome even in the presence of GM food (sales increases after control run)

We should start to question the ‘Goodness’ of retailers and GM opponents (instrumental use moral fear > heteronomous judgment in society

Moral pressure > heteronomous moral judgment Real experience increases moral autonomy

~20% market share in open markets > impressive Food conscious consumers paid with their own money > curiosity? Maybe but they also liked the taste

References

Philipp Aerni & Klaus-Jürgen Grün (2011) Moral und Angst. Vandenhoeck und Ruprecht Verlag, Göttingen

Philipp Aerni & Fritz Oser (2011) Forschung verändert Schule. Seismo Verlag, Zürich

Philipp Aerni (2011) Do political attitudes affect consumer choice? Evidence from a large-scale field study with GM corn bread. Sustainability 3: 1555-1572 (2011)

Philipp Aerni, Joachim Scholderer & David Ermen (2011) How would Swiss consumers decide if they had freedom of choice? Evidence from a field study with organic, conventional and GM corn bread. Food Policy 36(6): 830-838 (2011)

http://www.afee.ethz.ch/people/Associated/aernip/Publications