As genetically modified foods become increasingly common in the U.S. food supply without required package labeling, consumers are forming attitudes about GMOs from information presented by the food industry, government agencies, and third-party interest groups. An important issue within the controversy of GMOs is how available information may affect consumers’ willingness to purchase these food products in the market. Previous studies have measured consumer acceptance of GM foods in a non-hypothetical experimental auction setting with varying degrees of success. This study attempts to fill a gap in the current literature by eliciting consumer willingness-to-pay (WTP) bids for non-GMO corn tortilla chips through a series of 5th-price, non-hypothetical experimental auctions and introducing five different types of information shock across different sessions. In small auction groups with adults, we were able to show that non-hypothetical experimental auctions can elicit significant differences in consumer WTP for real food products. Introducing information that appeals to an example of a changed viewpoint, trusted authority, and societal usefulness significantly increased average participant bids while an appeal to the precautionary principle significantly decreased average participant bids. The results also showed that group size is critical to determining the significance of effects and that the auction mechanism may be easily biased.
