Why Americans Eat What They Do: Taste, Nutrition, Cost, Convenience, and Weight Control Concerns as Influences on Food Consumption
Section snippets
Theoretical and Empirical Background
Research on determinants of food choice has used models grounded in the social-psychological theories of decision making and behavior (5), (6). Value expectancy theory provides a framework for systematically evaluating the issues a person may consider in deciding whether to take a specific course of action, and can help to specify how people define and evaluate the elements of decision making about performing a specific behavior. Key elements of value expectancy theory are the valence, or
Research Aims and Hypotheses
Our study examines how a variety of factors, including demographic characteristics and health lifestyle orientation, are related to the importance of taste, nutrition, cost, convenience, and weight control as influences on food selection. We also investigate whether these factors, in turn, affect people's food choices in several categories: fast foods, cheese, fruits and vegetables, and breakfast cereals. We tested 3 related hypotheses derived from theory and the findings of other published
Data Collection and Sample
Data for this study were collected from 2 surveys conducted by Market Facts, Inc (Arlington Heights, III). The first was a lifestyles survey of a nationwide sample of 5,000 adults (commissioned by DDB Needham Worldwide). A supplemental mailing of 420 surveys was used to increase response of minorities and low-income persons. The second survey was a “healthstyles” survey, which was sent to persons who responded to the first survey. Of the 3,835 respondents to the lifestyles survey (71% response
Importance of Influences on Food Choice: Univariate Results
In general, taste was the most important consideration for respondents. On the 5-point scale, the mean score for importance of taste was 4.7, followed by cost (4.1), nutrition (3.9), convenience (3.8), and weight control (3.4).
Demographic Predictors of Importance
Our first hypothesis was that demographic factors would predict the importance of taste, nutrition, cost, convenience, and weight control to persons. This was tested with a series of Pearson correlations between importance factors and age, and with t tests and analyses of
Discussion
Our study examined predictors of the importance of influences on consumers’ food choices. We found that demographic factors were significant predictors of the importance of taste, nutrition, cost, convenience, and weight control for consumers. Health lifestyle cluster membership was also significantly associated with the relative importance of these factors, especially nutrition and weight control. In terms of food consumption, health lifestyle cluster membership plays a significant role in
Applications
Nutrition campaigns have generally tried to stress the importance of nutrition to consumers (2). The results of our study suggest that the perceived importance of nutrition, however, appears to depend on a person's psychological perspective. The association with health lifestyle cluster membership suggests that a person's perception of the importance of nutrition is probably an attitude that is strongly held and, consequently, resistant to change. According to cognitive theories of psychology,
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