Examining Essentialistic Beliefs About Food

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.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Adults

Detailed Description

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").

• Study Type: Observational
• Enrollment (Actual): 600

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• Singapore
  • Singapore, Singapore
    • Singapore

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 21 years to 65 years (Adult, Older Adult)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: N/A
• Genders Eligible for Study: All

• Sampling Method: Non-Probability Sample

Study Population

Participants will be recruited from the general public of Singapore aged between 21-65 years old, through Dynata (a market research company).

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• 21-65 years old

Exclusion Criteria:

• None

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Observational Models: Cohort
• Time Perspectives: Cross-Sectional

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Consumers' perceptions of food	Participants will be shown images of different kinds of foods varying in the levels of processing and they 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".	Baseline measure
Essentialistic beliefs about food (food as having immutable underlying 'essences' that contribute to the food's attributes and properties)	The essentialistic beliefs about food will be measured by a scale that we developed: Essentialism of Food Scale (EFS): 6-point scale from "Strongly Disagree" to "Strongly Agree".	Baseline measure
Perceptions of essentialistic transference	Perceptions of essentialistic transference refers to 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). It will be measured by a scale that we developed: Essentialistic Transference Scale (ETS): 6-point scale with 2 opposite traits as anchors e.g. "Very Irritable" to "Very good-natured"	Baseline measure
Nutrition knowledge	Nutrition knowledge will be measured by the Nutrition Knowledge scale (NKS): 6-point scale from "Strongly Disagree" to "Strongly Agree".	Baseline measure
Perception towards the importance of food naturalness	Importance of food naturalness will be measured by the Food Naturalness Scale (FNS): 6-point scale from "Strongly Disagree" to "Strongly Agree".	Baseline measure
Consumers' fears towards food technology	Consumers' fears towards food technology will be measured by the Food Technology Neophobia Scale (FTNS): 7-point scale from "Strongly Disagree" to "Strongly Agree".	Baseline measure

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Clinical Nutrition Research Centre, Singapore
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Bobby Cheon, PhD, Bobby_Cheon@sics.a-star.edu.sg

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): September 14, 2020
• Primary Completion (Actual): December 23, 2020
• Study Completion (Actual): December 23, 2020

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: January 8, 2021
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: January 8, 2021
• First Posted (Actual): January 12, 2021

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): January 12, 2021
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: January 8, 2021
• Last Verified: January 1, 2021

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Other Study ID Numbers: 2020-05-045

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No