Encouraging sustainable insect-based diets: The role of disgust,social influence,and moral concern in insect consumption

Disgust, social influence, and moral concern seem to play a pivotal role in insect consumption. Research examining these factors, particularly in the UK, is currently lacking. As a result, two studies were conducted to examine the perceived barriers and benefits of insect consumption, and how disgust can be counteracted. First, a cross-sectional study (N = 600) showed that disgust and moral concerns were unique predictors of individual’s willingness to consume insect products. Second, we conducted an experiment (N = 519) to examine whether knowledge that someone else consumes an insect-based product impacts one’s own willingness to consume insects. In this study we replicated Hartmann, Ruby, Schmidt, and Siegrist (2018) methodology of giving information about an insect consumer but added details about the individuals’ occupation and what type of product they consumed, examining how these factors impacted individual’s willingness to consume insect-based products. We found that this information did not impact willingness to consume; however, it did influence feelings of disgust and perceived acceptability. This study also replicated the first study by demonstrating that disgust and moral concern are barriers to insect consumption. We hope the current findings trigger future research to examine how disgust can be counteracted, and to better understand the role of moral concern in insect consumption.     

Extending the theory of planned behavior to understand consumer purchase behavior for organic vegetables in Brazil: The role of perceived health benefits,perceived sustainability benefits and perceived price

This study explores the factors that influence consumer purchase intention and behavior for organic vegetables in Brazil. A conceptual model based on the theory of planned behavior (TPB) was developed. In addition to all standard relationships in the TPB, the candidate variables of perceived health benefits, perceived sustainability benefits, and perceived price were added to the TPB-based model. Attitude was expected to mediate the relation between perceived health benefits and intention and the relation between perceived sustainability benefits and intention. Perceived price was expected to moderate the relation between intention and behavior. An online survey was conducted, resulting in a sample size of 504 participants. Data were analyzed by partial-least squares structural equation modeling. The results indicate that intention and perceived behavioral control influence the purchase behavior for organic vegetables, with intention presenting the strongest impact on behavior. Attitude has the strongest impact on consumer intention to purchase organic vegetables, followed by perceived behavioral control and subjective norms. The results also indicate that attitude mediates the relations between perceived health benefits and intention and perceived sustainability benefits and intention. Perceived price moderates the relationship between intention and behavior. Based on the results, managerial implications are presented.     

The temporality of eating behavior as a discriminant tool to characterize consumers: Temporal Dominance of Behavior applied to bread consumption during a restaurant meal in France

Video observation is gaining popularity as a data collection technique to study eating behavior. Traditional approaches to data analysis of video observations are based on static counts reporting the number of times an action occurs, disregarding the dynamic aspects captured in the video. In this paper, we investigate French consumers’ bread consumption patterns during a restaurant meal. We propose a novel approach, the Temporal Dominance of Behavior (TDB), to visualise the dynamic information contained in video material in terms of frequency, duration, sequence and simultaneity of actions based on standard data analysis principles from temporal methods such as Temporal Dominance of Sensations (TDS) and Temporal Check-All-That-Apply (T-CATA). TDB allows reporting hours of videos across several subjects in a single graphical output, providing an efficient summary overview suitable for results interpretation and communication.Regarding bread consumption patterns during a restaurant meal in French consumers, three groups of consumers are drawn: the No-breaders (43%), the Bread-as-a-tool group (48%) and the Bread lovers (9%). Eating behavior varies in the consumed quantity of bread as well as in consumption dynamics throughout the meal, and it is related to both the type of dish that is consumed and to consumer characteristics. The Temporal Observation Curves approach provides a graphical synthesis of the dynamic information.We discuss the added-value of the TDB method compared to single-point analysis, provide recommendations for future developments and suggest potential applications in the consumer and food domain.