title: Understanding consumer attitudes toward food technologies in Canada.
abstract: This article reports a study on consumer attitudes to 21 food and nonfood technologies in Canada. The study involves repertory grid interviews with 36 food consumers, the data from which are analyzed using generalized Procrustes analysis. Results highlight the role of perceived risk and perceived benefit in determining the acceptability of the technologies, with individual technologies lying along a continuum between the two. For technology as a whole and the 21 specific technologies, the perceived risk and perceived benefit constructs were the dominant determinants of consumer acceptability. While perceptions of perceived risk and perceived benefit differed between individual respondents, there were very limited consistent relations with a range of sociodemographic variables.
authors.affiliation: Department of Food, Agricultural, and Resource Economics, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, Canada. shenson@uoguelph.ca
authors.forename: Spencer
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Henson
authors.forename: Mamane
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Annou
authors.forename: John
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Cranfield
authors.forename: Joanne
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Ryks
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001294:Attitude to Health; D002170:Canada; D032882:Comprehension; D003258:Consumer Behavior; D003257:Consumer Product Safety; D005260:Female; D005502:Food; D005524:Food Technology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010465:Perception; D012306:Risk; D012923:Social Class