Effect of Regulatory Focus on Food Variety-Seeking Behavior of Chinese Tourists

Abstract

While limited attention has been paid to personality traits that influence tourists’ variety-seeking behavior with respect to food, evidence shows that Chinese people choose less variety than their counterparts in Western countries. We propose that regulatory focus influences consumers’ food variety-seeking behavior. Building on the theoretical alignment between regulatory focus, food neophobia, and food variety-seeking tendency, this research examines the effect of regulatory focus on Chinese consumers’ food variety-seeking behavior through three studies. Study 1 indicates that prevention-focused consumers have lower food variety-seeking intention than promotion-focused consumers. Study 2 shows that the former have higher food neophobia, leading to lower intention to seek food variety. Food neophobia plays the mediating role. Study 3 examines the moderating role of psychological safety, which can decrease food neophobia’s negative influence on seeking food variety. The results and implications of our findings are presented in the discussion section.