Meaning pursuit and food choices: Does meaning affect the healthiness, price, and variety of people’s groceries?
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2024-07-02
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en
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Abstract
Meaning is one pillar of happiness and well-being in people’s life. However, scant research
has investigated the effect of meaning pursuit on consumer behavior. This study aims to find
evidence for this relationship with food choices, consisting of the healthiness, price, and
variety of the choices. Understanding consumers’ food choices is important as it affects
overall health and choices are made on a daily basis. Additionally, this study tests whether
subscribing to a so-called ‘lay theory’ (i.e. healthy=expensive) and possessing variety seeking
traits appear as moderating variables in the relationship between meaning pursuit and food
choices.
A sample of 200 persons was drawn from the population of Dutch adults. The sample was
divided into two groups: meaning pursuit group and baseline group. Participants then selected
ten products with a maximum budget of €50. Independent t-tests and linear regression were
used to find whether differences in food choices occurred between the two groups.
Whereas previous research suggests that people in the pursuit of meaning cheap out on their
product choices, this study finds no evidence for these findings in the context of food choices.
Furthermore, this study yields no evidence for any moderating effect of the lay theory and
variety seeking. Nevertheless, the results suggest that subscribing to the lay theory that
healthy food is more expensive has a direct effect on the healthiness of food choices.
Additionally, a higher education was associated with healthier food choices, and hunger was
associated with less healthy food choices.
This research contributes to a better understanding of meaning pursuit and consumer
behavior. It opens new directions of research in the context of food, while it challenges
previous literature on meaning pursuit.
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Faculteit der Managementwetenschappen