Attitudes and behaviour towards GM food

The aim of this thesis was to examine attitudes towards genetically modified (GM) food and how these translate into behaviour. Research conducted divided quite neatly into two distinct sections. The first section explored explicit attitudes and other socio-cognitive constructs relating to behaviour...

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Main Author: Spence, Alexa
Format: Thesis (University of Nottingham only)
Language:English
Published: 2006
Online Access:https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/13014/
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author Spence, Alexa
author_facet Spence, Alexa
author_sort Spence, Alexa
building Nottingham Research Data Repository
collection Online Access
description The aim of this thesis was to examine attitudes towards genetically modified (GM) food and how these translate into behaviour. Research conducted divided quite neatly into two distinct sections. The first section explored explicit attitudes and other socio-cognitive constructs relating to behaviour towards GM food within the framework of different theoretical models including, most notably, the theory of planned behaviour (Ajzen, 1991). The second section measured implicit attitudes held towards GM food and the malleability of these attitudes, using an array of different reaction time tasks, e. g. the implicit association task (Greenwald, McGhee and Schwartz, 1998). A final experiment then linked these two sections by examining both implicit and explicit attitudes alongside various measures of behaviour in order to examine the predictive validity of these attitude constructs and how these may vary depending on the situation. Results indicated that socio-cognitive concepts of subjective norms, perceived behavioural control (PBC), self-identity and emotional involvement were useful alongside the construct of explicit attitudes in predicting intentions and behaviour towards GM food. In addition, measures of implicit attitude were found to be useful predictors of behaviour towards GM food, over and above explicit attitudes. Interestingly, measurementso f implicit attitude were found to be positive when measured in a context free manner but were also found to be malleable and differed considerably depending on the situational context of measurement. Actual behaviour was measured in a variety of different ways and these converged in demonstrating that the majority of participants would try GM food. Overall, findings indicated that within Britain more people than previously thought are likely to try GM food if it becomes more widely available.
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format Thesis (University of Nottingham only)
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spelling nottingham-130142025-02-28T11:22:38Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/13014/ Attitudes and behaviour towards GM food Spence, Alexa The aim of this thesis was to examine attitudes towards genetically modified (GM) food and how these translate into behaviour. Research conducted divided quite neatly into two distinct sections. The first section explored explicit attitudes and other socio-cognitive constructs relating to behaviour towards GM food within the framework of different theoretical models including, most notably, the theory of planned behaviour (Ajzen, 1991). The second section measured implicit attitudes held towards GM food and the malleability of these attitudes, using an array of different reaction time tasks, e. g. the implicit association task (Greenwald, McGhee and Schwartz, 1998). A final experiment then linked these two sections by examining both implicit and explicit attitudes alongside various measures of behaviour in order to examine the predictive validity of these attitude constructs and how these may vary depending on the situation. Results indicated that socio-cognitive concepts of subjective norms, perceived behavioural control (PBC), self-identity and emotional involvement were useful alongside the construct of explicit attitudes in predicting intentions and behaviour towards GM food. In addition, measures of implicit attitude were found to be useful predictors of behaviour towards GM food, over and above explicit attitudes. Interestingly, measurementso f implicit attitude were found to be positive when measured in a context free manner but were also found to be malleable and differed considerably depending on the situational context of measurement. Actual behaviour was measured in a variety of different ways and these converged in demonstrating that the majority of participants would try GM food. Overall, findings indicated that within Britain more people than previously thought are likely to try GM food if it becomes more widely available. 2006-12-14 Thesis (University of Nottingham only) NonPeerReviewed application/pdf en arr https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/13014/1/437072.pdf Spence, Alexa (2006) Attitudes and behaviour towards GM food. PhD thesis, University of Nottingham.
spellingShingle Spence, Alexa
Attitudes and behaviour towards GM food
title Attitudes and behaviour towards GM food
title_full Attitudes and behaviour towards GM food
title_fullStr Attitudes and behaviour towards GM food
title_full_unstemmed Attitudes and behaviour towards GM food
title_short Attitudes and behaviour towards GM food
title_sort attitudes and behaviour towards gm food
url https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/13014/