Trust and consumer risk perceptions regarding BSE and chronic wasting disease

Using survey data from Canada, the United States, and Japan, we assess the relationship between both generalized trust in people and agent-specific trust regarding food safety and consumer perceptions about bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) and chronic wasting disease (CWD). We find evidence that generalized trust in people is negatively related to consumers’ risk perceptions about BSE and CWD mainly in Canada. Trust measures for specific agents who might affect food safety risk also have mixed effects on consumers’ risk perceptions across the regions surveyed and between the two diseases. Monitoring public’s generalized trust in people and trust in food agents could generally assist in the short-term estimates of the impact of future animal disease incidents on consumption of meat products. [EconLit citation: D120, Q130, I190].