The Gender Gap on Public Opinion towards Genetically Modified Foods Laurel Elder Department of Political Science Hartwick College Steven Greene Department of Political Science North Carolina State University

What we want to know Why are women more negative towards/skeptical of genetically modified foods? What related demographic, political, science attitudes, or other factors might account this gap?

What we already know Pervasive and robust gender gap in attitudes towards GM food Race, education, region, age (?) affect GMO attitudes Mixed results on impact of GMO knowledge Risk perception has clear impact

What we think might be going on… Variance between women and men on various other demographic factors Parenthood effects? Political effects, i.e., the partisan/ideological gender gap Gender differences in attitudes towards science and business

What we did to find out more Analysis of 2006 General Social Survey GM Food related questions Analysis of 2013 CBS/Vanity Fair Survey GM Food related questions Series of regression models adding demographics, political, and science/GMO factors

Dependent variables Unwillingness to eat GM foods Number of GM food types willing to eat Level of concern with eating GM foods Support for labeling of GM foods

Key Independent Variables Sex Demographics: age, education, marital status, race, religiosity, income, region, Political: Party ID, ideology Science/GMO: Confidence in science and business; risk perceptions, knowledge of GMO’s

What we found out…

So, now we know… The gender gap is robust and pervasive even in multi-variate context What’s not the source of this gender gap Similarly pervasive and unexplained racial gap

What we still want to know… What is the source of this gap? I.e., what is it about being a woman that makes one more skeptical of GM foods (or about being a man that makes one more supportive)? Pew 2014 survey on Science and Society