Organic food choices and Protection Motivation Theory: Addressing the psychological sources of heterogeneity

R. Scarpa¹ and M. Thiene^2*

Abstract
Addressing generic preference heterogeneity for foods has been shown to improve statistical model fit, but it is relatively poor in terms of insights as to the sources of heterogeneity.

The study presents various results from latent class analysis of stated choice data of food choice using carrots as a prototype. We evaluate the coherence of the underlying preference structure using as criteria the psychological constructs used in Protection Motivation Theory (PMT) (Rogers, 1975) elicted by means of attitudinal responses.

We estimate latent classes based on such responses using both simultaneous and two-stage procedures. The latter performs a segmentation more in line with expectations derived from PMT, in terms of both the number of classes and their preference structures. While simultaneous estimation improves the statistical fit it yields class structures that appear less reasonable.


Source
Food Quality and Preference (2011) 22: 532-541
DOI: 10.1016/j.foodqual.2011.03.001


Author Locations and Affiliations
(1) Department of Economics, Waikato Management School, The University of Waikato, 21 Ruakura Road, Hamilton 3240, New Zealand
(2) Dep. TESAF, Viale dell’Università, 16, Legnaro (Padua), University of Padua, Italy
* Corresponding author, E-mail mara.thiene@unipd.it


Posted June 2011