Major psychological factors affecting consumer’s acceptance of food additives

Abstract

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to verify the validity of a causal model that was made to predict the consumer’s acceptance of food additives. Design/methodology/approach – A new emotional model in which cognitive factors influence emotional factors from the bottom-up was made and the validity of the model was tested. A social survey was conducted in Tokyo, Japan, among 120 female undergraduate students. Findings – The results showed that the new emotional model had a higher validity than the conventional emotional model, in which emotional factors influence cognitive factors. Research limitations/implications – The reliability and validity of the present models should be reconfirmed with a sample of more than 200 subjects in the future. The sample comprised only Japanese female undergraduate students and additional studies be conducted with diverse samples to ensure that the proposed model is valid and reliable across multiple settings. Future studies should verify whether the use of other topics would produce the same results. Practical implications – As it is often difficult to directly affect consumer’s emotions by providing information and education for only a short period of time, it may be advisable to try to change consumer’s cognitions about the perceived risks and benefits through information and education instead. Social implications – The greater significance of the current study is the suggestion that the influence of perceptions on emotions should also be considered when evaluating consumer’s acceptance. Originality/value – This study showed that the influence of cognitive factors, such as perceived risk and perceived benefit, is also effective in an emotional model. This importantly suggests that consumer’s emotions like anxiety and anger can be changed by altering consumer’s cognitions or perceptions.