Building Muscles from Eating Insects

Abstract

Research and market data have shown a growing demand for sports supplements and increasing consumers’ awareness regarding their health and environmental attributes. An extended Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) framework was tested to explain insect-based protein bars and powder consumption among 256 Brazilians who are gym users and consume conventional sports supplements and results were analyzed using PLS-SEM. Perceived risk outperformed attitude as a predictor, diminishing the intention to consume insect-based sports supplements. Health proved to be the most important explanatory factor of attitude, while sustainability resulted in a smaller effect and taste impact was not significant. Whereas media was significant and a relatively strong predictor of the subjective norm, experts were not. Media content, such as social media, receives more attention and the information that gym users value is not predominantly provided by health professionals in the case of muscle-building products. Policymakers, marketing professionals, consumer psychology and product development can also benefit from the results to provide clear and accessible information about supplements across all sporting communities to reduce risk perception and increase acceptance.