Public perception of new plant breeding techniques and the psychosocial determinants of acceptance: A systematic review.

Advancements in New Plant Breeding Techniques have emerged as promising tools for enhancing crop productivity, quality, and resilience in the face of global challenges, such as climate change and food security. However, the successful implementation of these techniques relies also on public acceptance of this innovation. Understanding what shapes public perception and acceptance of New Plant Breeding Techniques is crucial for effective science communication, policymaking, and the sustainable adoption of these innovations. The objective of this systematic review was to synthesize existing research on the public perception of New Plant Breeding Techniques applied to food crops and explore the psychosocial determinants that influence acceptance. Twenty papers published between 2015 and 2023 were included on various New Plant Breeding Techniques and their reception by the general public. Determinants affecting the acceptance of food crops derived from New Plant Breeding Techniques were categorized into six areas: sociodemographic factors, perceived benefits and risks, attitudes toward science, communication strategies, personal values, and product characteristics.

Providing freedom or financial remuneration? A cross-sectional study on the role of monetary and legal incentives on COVID-19 further booster vaccination intention in the Italian context.

Vaccine hesitancy became a more and more important issue during the COVID-19 pandemic. Due to the emergence of new variants, many international health agencies have already begun administering booster doses of the vaccine in response to these threats. Studies have emphasized the effectiveness of different types of incentive-based strategies to increase vaccination behaviors. The purpose of the present study was to identify the correlation between different types of incentives (legal or financial) with people's intentions to get a COVID-19 booster vaccine. We conducted a cross-sectional study between 29 January 2022 and 03 February 2022. An online quantitative survey was carried out in Italy. One thousand and twenty-two Italian adults were recruited by a professional panel provider. Descriptive statistics were computed for the five variables concerning the incentives (monetary, tax, fee, health certification, travel) toward vaccination. A general linear model (GLM) was then computed to compare the scores of the five different variables within the subjects. The general linear model showed a significant within-subjects main effect. Post-hoc comparisons showed that among the financial incentive, the monetary reward is rated lower than all the others. Tax and fees both resulted lower than both the legal incentives. Finally, COVID-19 health certification and travel did not result significantly different from each other. This study offers an important contribution to public policy literature and to policymakers in their efforts to explain and steer booster vaccination acceptance while facing an ongoing pandemic.

Public views on the Covid-19 immunity certificate: A scoping review.

INTRODUCTION: Already in its first implementation, the introduction of the Covid-19 immunity certificate has generated some debate among the public. This debate might be a hindrance to the effective realization of this policy. This study aimed to systematically review published research evaluating public feeling of the Covid-19 immunity certificate policy measure and to find which factors might influence its acceptance. METHODS: We followed the scoping review methods manual by the Joanna Briggs Institute. We included studies with no time limits that presented novel data, and no exclusions have been made based on study design. We excluded articles that presented just expert opinions. RESULTS: We found and reviewed 17 articles. The included studies were conducted in two main countries (the United Kingdom and Switzerland), with the rest from Israel, Italy, Spain, Germany, Australia, Taiwan and China. Both qualitative and quantitative studies were included, and nonrepresentative samples were mostly used to explore the public feeling about the Covid-19 immunity certification. The included studies showed that public views on immunity certification are quite contradictory and influenced by age, gender, ethnicity, political orientation and attitudes towards Covid-19 vaccination. The topic more often addressed by the included studies was the public's views on the positive and negative implications of the Covid-19 immunity certificate in terms of ethical, legal and behavioural consequences of this measure. CONCLUSION: The varying acceptance rates are notable and may partly be linked to differences in demographics, Covid-19 concerns and ideological beliefs, as seen in other health-related tracking policies. Moreover, dominant factors behind the (un)success of this policy are complex and entangled with the cultural and political dimensions rather than being just technical. For this reason, it is important to expand psychosocial research to better understand the concerns behind health certifications and allow planning of culturally based and ethically sound suitable strategies. This would be very relevant to increasing public approval and compliance with this public health measure. PATIENT OR PUBLIC CONTRIBUTION: This does not apply to our work as it was a review paper.

Public Perceptions of Harms and Benefit of COVID-19 Immunity Certificate: A Cross-Sectional Study in the Italian Setting.

A cross-sectional survey between 29 January 2022 and 3 February 2022 was conducted to understand the public rationale for accepting or rejecting the use of COVID-19 immunity certificates and to identify the psychosocial factors that mostly predict the positive/negative individuals' perceptions of this measure. One thousand twenty-two Italian adults were recruited by a professional panel provider by employing a stratified sampling strategy controlled for gender, age, geographical area of residence, size of the urban centre of residence, employment, and wage. Eight Welch's ANOVAs were then carried out to compare the perception of benefits and the perception of harms among different population groups. Multiple linear regression was carried out to measure the explained variance of benefits perception and harms perception by age, trust in institutions, and concern for health emergencies. The results shows that age, trust in institution, and concern for the COVID-19 emergency explain more variance of perceived benefits than of perceived harms of COVID-19 immunity certificates but the opposite regarding political orientation which explains perceived harms better than perceived benefits. The need for policy improvements is pressing because a large share of the world's population remains unvaccinated. Moreover, our results can serve as vital information for similar health crises that may occur in the future. In addition, our results are expected to offer useful insights into public feelings around the use of digital health information tools.