Are risk or benefit perceptions more important for public acceptance of innovative food technologies: A meta-analysis

This paper pursued two goals: first, to investigate the much disputed question of whether risk or benefit perceptions are more influential in people's acceptance of food technologies and second, to shed light on the relationship between the two perceptions. In total, 26 studies were selected fo...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Trends in food science & technology 2016-03, Vol.49, p.14-23
Main Authors: Bearth, Angela, Siegrist, Michael
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Acceptance
Benefit perception
Food processing
Food technology
Foods
Meta-analysis
Moderators
Perception
Risk communication
Risk perception
Technology utilization
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Summary:This paper pursued two goals: first, to investigate the much disputed question of whether risk or benefit perceptions are more influential in people's acceptance of food technologies and second, to shed light on the relationship between the two perceptions. In total, 26 studies were selected for a random-effects meta-analysis. The results suggest a high degree of variability in correlation coefficients for all three investigated relationships. This paper presents the insights gained into the perception and acceptance of food technologies, the relationships between these three factors and discusses potential moderators of the relationship strengths. Furthermore, this paper's discussion offers insights for future risk communication research by highlighting important research gaps and possibilities. •Both risk and benefit perceptions influence food technology acceptance.•Risk and benefit perceptions are negatively related to each other.•The correlation coefficients for all three relationships exhibited a high degree of variability.•Future research should clarify potential moderators of the variability in correlation coefficients.
ISSN:0924-2244
1879-3053
DOI:10.1016/j.tifs.2016.01.003