Did you watch it on TV or did you retweet it? The influence of knowledge and information sources on healthy eating
(A2019-9272)

AUTHORS

Isabel Carrero, Universidad Pontificia Comillas; Estela Díaz, Comillas Pontifical University; Raquel Redondo, Universidad Pontificia Comillas de Madrid

KEYWORDS

Healthy-eating; Knowledge; Millennials

ABSTRACT

The young adulthood stage is critical for the creation and maintenance of healthy eating habits. To our knowledge this is the first study that intends to explore the influence of nutritional knowledge and different sources of nutritional information (friends, family, digital and traditional media) in Millennials’ eating behaviors. A survey completed by 268 Millennials reveals that digital media provide Millennials with more efficient information to build nutritional knowledge than family and traditional media. Moreover, this knowledge plays a different role; traditional media and family increase the perception of social pressure towards healthy eating, whereas digital sources increase perceived efficacy. Since self-efficacy seems to be the key antecedent of healthy eating in Millennials, the present study shows that social media platforms are a powerful tool to help young consumers in making healthy food choices.