New breeding techniques may play an important role in improving food quality, global food security, and sustainability. Previous breeding techniques have, however, met with substantial resistance from society and its consumers. This study examined the role of associations and deliberation in the evaluation of (new) breeding techniques. Breeding techniques studied included conventional breeding, gene-editing, genetic modification (cisgenesis and transgenesis), marker-assisted breeding, and synthetic biology. By using focus group discussions that included individual tasks, we found that when participants rely on their spontaneous associations, they evaluate gene-editing similarly compared to genetic modification. However, after information provision and group discussion, participants obtained different levels of acceptance between techniques. Gene-editing was preferred over genetic modification. Perceived naturalness was found to be the main reason for the different levels of acceptance. These findings highlight the importance of associations and show that beliefs about naturalness remain crucial in understanding how consumers evaluate breeding techniques.

Date Submitted: 2023-03-17