U.S. consumer support for genetically modified foods: Time trends and assessments of four GM attributes

Figures & data

Table 1. Sample descriptive statistics.

Variable	Definition	2018	2019	2020	2021	2022	2023	Total
Kiddum	Presence of children under age 18	18.0%	20.3%	26.5%	10.9%	16.0%	16.2%	18.2%
Inc75	Household income > $75K	43.1%	40.3%	43.3%	58.9%	51.6%	50.5%	47.4%
Female	Identify as female	59.4%	64.7%	53.5%	50.8%	52.8%	50.1%	55.3%
College	Completed associates degree or higher	79.4%	80.5%	82.1%	91.9%	76.5%	75.0%	79.4%
Data year	observations	510	538	430	248	702	673	3101

Figure 1. Unadjusted support for novel technologies.

Figure 2. Adjusted support for novel technologies.

Table 2. Pearson correlation coefficients – GM attributes.

	To protect against drought/virus	To repel pests/weeds	To prevent browning	To support superior fish growth	Support for GM use in food production
To protect against drought/virus	1	.719**	.648**	.497**	.646**
To repel pests/weeds	.719**	1	.666**	.547**	.618**
To prevent browning	.648**	.666**	1	.641**	.616**
To support superior fish growth	.497**	.547**	.641**	1	.556**
Support for GM use in food production	.646**	.618**	.616**	.556**	1

**Sig. ≤ .01 N=3103.

Table 3. Comparison of support for GM over time.

		Overall	2018	2019	2020	2021	2022	2023	F-test
GMO support	Overall support for the use of GM in food production	1.44 (1.23)	1.20^b,d,e,f (1.24)	1.19^a,d,e,f (1.18)	1.42 (1.27)	1.70^a,b (1.17)	1.55^a,b (1.17)	1.62^a,b (1.27)	14.969***
Virus	Support for technologies that increase resistance to viruses or drought	2.12 (1.36)	1.79^c,d,e,f (1.43)	1.79^c,d,e,f (1.39)	2.13^a,b,c (1.44)	2.45^a,b,c (1.23)	2.28^a,b,c (1.27)	2.32^a,b (1.28)	20.823***
Herbinsect	Support for technologies that repel weeds or insects	1.58 (1.36)	1.13^c,d,ef (1.19)	1.24^b,d,e,f (1.24)	1.77^a,b (1.50)	1.97^a,b (1.37)	1.74^a,b (1.34)	1.78^a,b (1.38)	29.531***
Browning	Support for technologies that reduce browning	1.36^d,e,f (1.26)	1.16^c,d,e,f (1.26)	1.13^b (1.20)	1.39^a,b (1.39)	1.62^a (1.21)	1.50^a,b (1.21)	1.43^a,b (1.24)	10.545***
Growth	Support for technologies that support superior animal growth	0.94 (1.12)	0.88 (1.16)	0.90 (1.12)	0.96 (1.20)	1.03 (1.09)	0.96 (1.05)	0.94 (1.13)	0.85
N		3101	510	538	430	248	702	673

a=Sig. different than 2018 p≤-01; b=Sig. different than 2019 p≤.01; c=Sig. different than 2020 p≤.01; d= Sig. different than 2021 p≤.01; e=Sig. different than 2022 p≤.01; f= Sig. different than 2023 p≤.01.

Table 4. Contribution of GM attributes to overall support for GM in food production.

GM Attribute (continuous)	OLS	GM Attribute (ordinal)	Ordinal Probit
To protect against drought/virus	.28 (.017)***	To protect against drought/virus
		Strongly oppose	reference
		Oppose	.94 (.14)***
		No opinion	1.01 (.13)***
		Support	1.51 (.13)***
		Strongly support	2.08 (.14)***
To repel pests/weeds	.15 (.018)***	To repel pests/weeds
		Strongly oppose	reference
		Oppose	.26 (.10)***
		No opinion	.47 (.11)***
		Support	.48 (.11)***
		Strongly support	.78 (.13)***
To prevent browning	.17 (.019)***	To prevent browning
		Strongly oppose	reference
		Oppose	.12(.09)
		No opinion	.29 (.09)***
		Support	.50 (.10)***
		Strongly support	.71 (.17)***
To support superior fish growth	.21 (.02)***	To support superior fish growth
		Strongly oppose	reference
		Oppose	39 (.06***
		No opinion	.64 (.09)***
		Support	.65 (.08)***
		Strongly support (reference)	1.10 (.16)***
year2019	−.02 (.05)		−.00 (.07)
year2020	−.04 (.06)		−.02 (.08)
year2021	.08 (.07)		.13 (.09)
year2022	.05 (.05)		.10 (.07)
year2023	.11 (.05)**		.17 (.07)**
Constant	0.21 (.05)***
Actual mean	1.44 (1.23)
Predicted Mean	1.52 (1.33)
Predicted Category (Mean)			1.33 (1.19)
Sig. p ≤.05 ** Sig. p ≤.01***	Adj. R^2 = .52	n=3101	McFadden R2 =.25

Control variables: education, gender, income, presence of children.