A study found that young adults' attitudes towards GMO food was influenced
by their referent individual, their location, and their gender. Published by
PLOS One, the study by Stephen Brosig and Miroslava Bavarova had respondents
from the Czech Republic, Ukraine, and Russia.
Results showed that there is a positive association between the GM food
attitudes of young adults and their referent person, particularly their
mothers. Results also showed that the said association is stronger in
respondents from Russia and the Czech Republic compared to the respondents
from Ukraine. Lastly, the association of attitudes between the attitudes of
young female adults and their referent persons was found to be stronger than
between young male adults and their referent persons.
According to the authors, their research has implications and suggests a
potential direction for further studies that may use concepts of personal
traits, communication patterns, culture, and power relationships to analyze
the impact of referent persons to attitude formations. This, in turn, will
be useful in determining people's attitudes towards approved GM foods and GM
labeling in the future.
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journals.plos.org]