Examining Essentialistic Beliefs About Food

Adults

This project seeks to test whether people maintain essentialistic beliefs about food (foods as having immutable underlying 'essences' that contribute to the food's attributes and properties). Currently, there are studies on essentialistic beliefs on topics such as: race, genes, and natural objects. However, there is limited research applying the concept of essentialism to food. In addition, in food studies, participants' perception and acceptability of foods were being explored but what remains unknown is whether they have any degree of essentialistic beliefs towards food which influences their perception and acceptability of food. Therefore, the aim of this study is to gain in-depth knowledge and understanding on whether people maintain essentialistic beliefs about food, and determine whether these beliefs may be associated with attitudes and expectations of foods that vary in their levels of processing.

Objectives: 1. To gain in-depth knowledge and understanding on whether people maintain essentialistic beliefs about food (foods as having immutable underlying 'essences' that contribute to the food's attributes and properties). 2. To determine whether these beliefs may be associated with attitudes and expectations of foods that vary in their levels of processing. 3. To explore the perceptions of essentialistic transference: The belief that the essence of a food is transferred to a person who consumes the food, which manifests the properties of the food in the consumer (E.g., the belief that people who have a diet of eating fast-running animals are also fast runners). Study Design: This study involves 2 parts: Study 1A & Study 1B. Study 1A: 300 participants in Singapore, aged between 21-65 years old will be recruited to do an online survey on Qualtrics. Participants would first rate their baseline appetite before proceeding to the survey. For this study, the food categories will be: Milk, Rice, Carrot and Chicken. There will be a total of 7 different kinds of foods varying in the levels of processing per category and the images of these foods will be presented in a randomized order. Participants will rate their perceptions of the properties of foods (e.g. nutritiousness, naturalness, familiarity, liking, taste, stereotypical trait, and processing) on a scale that ranges from Not at all to Very much. After rating their perceptions of the properties of foods, participants will complete questionnaires measuring: Essentialistic beliefs about food (EFS: 6-point scale from Strongly Disagree to Strongly Agree), perceptions of essentialistic transference (ETS: 6-point scale with 2 opposite traits as anchors e.g. Very Irritable to Very good-natured), nutrition knowledge (NKS: 6-point scale from Strongly Disagree to Strongly Agree), importance of food naturalness (FNS: 6-point scale from Strongly Disagree to Strongly Agree) and consumers' fears towards food technology (FTNS: 7-point scale from Strongly Disagree to Strongly Agree). Study 1B: 300 participants in Singapore, aged between 21-65 years old will be recruited to do an online survey on Qualtrics. Participants would first rate their baseline appetite before proceeding to the survey. For this study, the food categories will be: Fish, Orange, Napa Cabbage, Peanut and Beef. There will be a total of 7 different kinds of foods varying in the levels of processing per category and 2 foods-in-name (e.g. Vuna and Impossible burger), and the images of these foods will be presented in a randomize order. Participants will rate their perceptions of the properties of foods (e.g. nutritiousness, naturalness, familiarity, liking, taste, stereotypical trait, and processing) on a scale that ranges from Not at all to Very much. After rating their perceptions of the properties of foods, participants will complete questionnaires measuring: Essentialistic beliefs about food (EFS: 6-point scale from Strongly Disagree to Strongly Agree), perceptions of essentialistic transference (ETS: 6-point scale with 2 opposite traits as anchors e.g. Very Irritable to Very good-natured), nutrition knowledge (NKS: 6-point scale from Strongly Disagree to Strongly Agree), importance of food naturalness (FNS: 6-point scale from Strongly Disagree to Strongly Agree) and consumers' fears towards food technology (FTNS: 7-point scale from Strongly Disagree to Strongly Agree).

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Singapore