Search Conferences

Type in any word, words or author name. This searchs through the abstract title, keywords and abstract text and authors. You may search all conferences or just select one conference.


 All Conferences
 EMAC 2019 Annual Conference
 EMAC 2020 Annual Conference
 EMAC 2020 Regional Conference
 EMAC 2021 Annual Conference
 EMAC 2021 Regional Conference
 EMAC 2022 Annual
 EMAC 2022 Regional Conference
 EMAC 2023 Annual
 EMAC 2023 Regional Conference

EMAC 2020 Annual Conference


The Link between the Belief in a Just World and the Unhealthy = Tasty Intuition in Food Consumption
(A2020-64334)

Published: May 27, 2020

AUTHORS

Sandra Laporte, TSM Toulouse School of Management; Barbara Briers, Vlerick Business School

KEYWORDS

Food behavior; Lay belief; Belief in a Just World

ABSTRACT

Obesity is one of the greatest public health challenges of modern times and its prevalence is increasing worldwide. Many people face the conflict between short-term taste and long-term health. Consumers who believe in a trade-off between health and taste in food (the Unhealthy = Tasty Intuition, or “UTI”) tend to under-consume healthy food because they expect a bad taste. In support, there is a positive association between UTI and BMI. We propose that the UTI stems from a more general compensatory belief that functional benefits come with hedonic costs as described in the Protestant work ethic (PWE) and Belief in a Just World (BJW). Both the BJW and UTI have been proven to be generally higher in the US versus France, and so are the obesity rates. Therefore, we investigate whether BJW can explain (part) of the cultural variation in UTI. Our findings show how cultural lay beliefs can have pervasive and long-lasting effects on food perceptions and dietary practices worldwide.