Drivers of Chinese public attitudes towards agri-food applications based on synthetic biology: the results of qualitative exploratory research

Synthetic biology (SB) has attracted global interest in recent years due to its potential not only to produce various potentially beneficial applications including within the agri-food sector but also to cause multiple risks. However, public attitudes towards SB food have been infrequently investigated. The focus of this research relates to how Chinese participants respond to different SB agri-food applications, and whether these responses differ from responses to GM foods. Seven categories of factors that shaped participants’ attitudes towards SB agri-food applications were identified based on six focus groups in Tier 1 and Tier 2 cities. These were: 1) perceived benefit, risk and ethical issues associated with specific SB applications, 2) affect/emotions evoked by SB applications, 3) attitudes associated with SB in general, 4) features or traits of applications, 5) personal experience and values, 6) social context, and 7) information to which individuals are exposed. Whilst some participants ‘made sense’ of SB based on existing attitudes towards GM, participants’ attitudes towards SB were less crystallised, resulting in more changes of attitudes towards SB applications after group discussions compared with GM applications. Perceptions of ethical issues associated with SB using synthetic genes also differed from those associated with GM which uses genes from other organisms. The results indicate that it is necessary to establish a more effective mechanism to engage interested stakeholders, including consumers, and co-develop socially acceptable SB agri-food products. It is also important to consider the combined influence of multiple factors in specific cultural or socio-economic contexts when developing targeted communication strategies.