Consumer Acceptance of CRISPR: Evidence from Incentive-Aligned Online Experiments
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CRISPR is a gene-editing technology that enables the creation of crops with commercially desirable traits that have the potential for significant positive impacts on food productivity, quality, and sustainability. It may therefore help alleviate pressing issues related to food security and climate change. Although the benefits of this new technology are understood to be unambiguously positive among the scientific community, it is unclear to what extent consumers will accept CRISPR-based food products. In this project, we examine consumer preferences for enhanced product attributes developed via CRISPR and test how information about CRISPR affects consumer acceptance. We use an incentive-aligned choice-based conjoint study administered to participants online, along with between-subject experiments to measure preferences under different information treatments about CRISPR technology. Our findings indicate that providing information about CRISPR increases the willingness to pay (WTP) for the products with the CRISPR attribute on average. Providing information on the product-specific benefits of CRISPR is the most impactful. We also find a positive interaction effect between online grocery shopping and CRISPR products, suggesting that CRISPR may increase the accessibility and marketability of fresh produce sold online. By leveraging this synergy between CRISPR and online shopping, manufacturers can potentially boost the sales of CRISPR fresh produce online, thereby enhancing the accessibility of fresh produce.