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To examine the effect of personal benefit on willingness to accept
the agricultural biotechnologies our survey asked respondents if
they would be willing to purchase a product made from one of the
two biotechnology applications (rice, tobacco). Survey respondents
were first asked if they would be willing to purchase a product
made from GMO rice/bio-tobacco if it were priced the same as
an equivalent non-GMO product. For subjects that would not purchase
at market price the product was offered at a discount in a follow-up
item. Respondents were randomly assigned to one of five levels of
price discounting prior to administering the survey. The price discounts,
offered in the form of discount percentages, are: 5%, 10%, 25%,
40%, and 50%.
The overall distributions of responses to the willingness to purchase
items are given in the figure below (note: subjects who responded
DK are omitted from the summaries in this chart).
Notice in the figure above that respondents fall into three distinct
groups based on their responses: those who would purchase at market
price, respondents who would purchase the product only with a discount
incentive, and consumers who would not purchase even with price
discounting
The distribution of responses within each application type is bimodal,
with a large percentage of respondents willing to purchase at market
price and a large segment of the population unwilling to purchase
GMO-based products even with discount incentives. The distribution
for tobacco appears to be slightly shifted toward greater acceptance
of the technology.
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In the rice survey 406 subjects were presented the follow-up discount
item; 308 subjects in the tobacco survey were asked the follow-up.
Overall, few subjects were willing to purchase the product at a
discounted price - 32 of the rice respondents agreed to purchase;
40 of the tobacco respondents were willing to purchase.
Responses are summarized within each level of price discounting
in the table below:
Would you be willing to buy the
GMO-based product at X% discount? |
|
|
5% discount |
| Yes |
4 |
4.9 |
8 |
13.3 |
| No |
61 |
74.4 |
36 |
60.0 |
| DK |
17 |
20.7 |
16 |
26.7 |
|
|
10% discount |
| Yes |
6 |
7.0 |
5 |
8.2 |
| No |
65 |
75.6 |
31 |
50.8 |
| DK |
15 |
17.4 |
25 |
41.0 |
|
|
25% discount |
| Yes |
6 |
7.1 |
11 |
16.9 |
| No |
70 |
82.4 |
35 |
53.8 |
| DK |
9 |
10.6 |
19 |
29.2 |
|
|
40% discount |
| Yes |
8 |
11.6 |
10 |
13.9 |
| No |
51 |
73.9 |
44 |
61.1 |
| DK |
10 |
14.5 |
18 |
25.0 |
|
|
50% discount |
| Yes |
8 |
9.5 |
6 |
12.0 |
| No |
63 |
75.0 |
26 |
52.0 |
| DK |
13 |
15.5 |
18 |
36.0 |
|
|
Total across discounts |
| Yes |
32 |
7.9 |
40 |
13.0 |
| No |
310 |
76.4 |
172 |
55.8 |
| DK |
64 |
15.8 |
96 |
31.2 |
|
|
| Grand Total: |
406 |
100.0 |
308 |
100.0 |
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Within every level of price discount the transgenic tobacco-based
product evidenced greater consumer acceptance as compared to the
GMO rice product. We also note that for the tobacco-based product,
consumers were less certain about their buying intentions; the relative
frequency of the don't know (DK) responses are noticeably higher
for the tobacco side of the table as compared to the GMO rice product.
There appears to be a positive, albeit weak, linear trend in the
rice data. However, no such pattern is evidenced for the pharmaceutical-producing
transgenic tobacco product.
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