Funded under the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP), Mission 4 Component 2 Investment 1.3, Theme 10.
Funded under the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP), Mission 4 Component 2 Investment 1.3, Theme 10.
Stranger foods - Psychological predictors and attitudes towards food c...
Coordinator
Aims to widen current knowledge to grasp how dietary choices are affected by social and cultural elements including believes and norms, such as injunctive and subjective norms.
This task will also unveil psychological factors pertaining to health, positive, clinical psychology and psychosomatics affecting eating behaviours to broaden the current evidence and the intervention options to reduce eating related disorders (e.g., food neophobias) and promote wellbeing.
Building on task T7.2.3 and WPT7.3, and considering regional differences, this task will develop a set of policies aiming to promote a transition towards healthy and sustainable diets within schools focusing on local and culturally acceptable products and on the promotion of the values of the Mediterranean diet.
Development of an expanded pilot model combining established and un-covered psychological/ psychosocial internal and external regulatory factors (M18)
At this stage in history, it is especially important to pay attention to preserving the planet and choosing sustainable foods. Consumers are beginning to form their own opinions and beliefs about food products such as those obtained through genetic editing, or containing edible insects, cultured meats, or plant-based products.
It is therefore very important to understand what people’s attitudes about these products are and if there is any resistance. This would allow undertaking effective science-based communication actions that can reassure consumers and counter negative beliefs.
The operational plan consists of two main phases:
Phase 1: In the first phase the objective will be to understand the psychological factors that may play a major role in the choice of unconventional foods that are considered positive by the scientific community for their impact on health and the environment. Specifically, there will be a focus on 4 food categories: insect products; cultured meats; vegan products; and GMO products. Implicit and explicit attitudes will be recorded, together with consumption intentions.
Phase 2: In a second phase the objective will be to establish directions for the development of communication and promotion strategies aimed at fostering trust and an approach to these unconventional foods.
To pursue such goals, we developed a collaboration with the Institute of Agricultural Biology and Biotechnology of the Center of National Research Council (CNR) to study these variables among high school students and their teachers.
Our actions will concern the development of a smartphone-suitable task to record automatic associations in the adolescent population; the measurement of psychosocial determinants of “strange” food behaviors; the creation of targeted communication intervention.
Moreover, we will extend the study to other segments of the population, from young adults to the elderly, to explore the presence of significant differences by age.
The main objective of this project is to investigate the openness of people, and particularly high school students and their teachers, to a range of unusual foods with lower environmental impact, each with its own characteristics.
A second objective is to compare different segments of the population, starting from the assumption that age could represent a meaningful factor to willingness to taste.
A third objective is to propose effective strategies for developing communication interventions that can reassure consumers (or prospective consumers) and assist them in their choice, taking into consideration the results of phase 1 and 2, and especially age, to targeted interventions.
The results of the project, therefore, will contribute to the implementation and sharing of research and intervention protocols aimed specifically at schools, with particular reference to the use of explicit and implicit measures.
The expected results will focus on identifying psychological predictors of intention to taste.
