A new study concludes that shoppers aren’t scared off by labels on food containing genetically modified organisms, but labeling opponents are skeptical of the findings.

The study by University of Vermont economics professor Jane Kolodinsky found that support for mandatory GMO labeling didn’t measurably correspond with opposition to biotechnology.

“A label doesn’t seem to change people’s opinion of genetic engineering,” she said.

The results were released at a time when GMO labels are in the public spotlight.

A proposal to ban state and local governments from requiring labels for GMOs is currently pending in Congress and Vermont’s labeling law is being challenged before the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

An average of 89 percent of Vermont residents, who were surveyed five times between 2003 and 2015 as part of the study, favored mandatory GMO labeling.

About 60 percent of survey respondents said they opposed GMOs being used in commercial food products.

Among people who want labeling, those without college educations, those in single-parent households and those with the highest incomes tended not to oppose GMOs.

Support for labeling tended to increase GMO opposition among men and people with median incomes, but the overall impact of backing labels was negligible to non-existent, the study found.

Kolodinsky said she was surprised by the results because opponents claim that GMO labels will act as warnings to consumers and reduce consumption of products containing biotech ingredients.

Given the study’s findings, however, such fears are unfounded, she said.

The Coalition for Safe and Affordable Food, which represents food manufacturers and farm groups opposed to GMO labeling, believes the study “conveniently overlooks” statements by anti-GMO advocates who tout labels as the first step in convincing the public to avoid biotech products.

The coalition pointed to a recent survey by the Pew Research Service that found the majority of scientists view GMOs as safe while the majority of the public does not.

“This is the result of a campaign of deception anti-GMO activists have been waging for years,” the coalition said in statement. “A mandatory label will only serve to deepen this divide between perception and reality.”

Ilya Somin, a George Mason University law professor who has written about GMO labels, said it’s hard to reconcile the study’s conclusions with the championing of labels among biotech critics.

“If it really wouldn’t scare anybody off, it’s unclear why anti-GMO people would advocate for labeling,” he said.

Somin also questioned whether the survey sample was representative of the U.S. as a whole, since it was conducted in a liberal-leaning state that tends to be more skeptical of GMOs.

“Vermont is atypical in a number of well-known ways,” he said.

While some people who support labels may not oppose GMOs, the labeling movement is generally embraced by people who oppose biotechnology, Somin said.

The Center for Food Safety, a nonprofit group that’s critical of GMOs, believes labels will be useful for people who want to avoid them without unnecessarily alarming consumers.

“It doesn’t come with an enormous stigma for the industry,” said Colin O’Neil, the group’s director of government affairs.

It’s more likely that food manufacturers who have spent millions of dollars fighting GMO label campaigns in several states will cause fear of GMOs, he said.

Such efforts reinforce the idea that companies that rely on biotech ingredients have something to hide, O’Neil said. “What are these companies so afraid of?”