scientific, social, ecological rationality and public attitudes toward genetically modified food in China: based on the survey of urban residents in three cities of China
Survey analysis reveals how rationality types shape attitudes toward genetically modified food in urban residents, highlighting institutional trust as a key mediator.
Key Points
To examine how scientific, social, and ecological rationality influence public attitudes toward genetically modified food, and to assess the mediating role of institutional trust.
Cross-sectional survey of 1,020 urban residents across three cities in China.
Structural equation modeling to evaluate direct and mediated pathways linking rationality dimensions, institutional trust, perceived benefits, perceived risks, and attitudes.
Scientific rationality correlated positively with perceived benefits but showed no significant link to perceived risks, whereas social rationality correlated negatively with benefits and positively with risks, and ecological rationality correlated positively only with perceived risks.
Institutional trust directly predicted attitudes and significantly mediated the relationships between rationality types and perceived benefits or risks, though the indirect path from scientific rationality through trust and risk perception was nonsignificant.
The comprehensive structural equation model explained 53.6% of the variance in public attitudes toward genetically modified food.