A segmentation and characterization of consumers affected by rising food prices.

The food price inflation in 2022 has put considerable pressure on some consumers, leading to changes in their food choice and consumption behavior. To gain a better understanding of consumers' responses to rising food prices, we conducted an online survey among 1000 consumers in Germany, in which they were asked to self-report the extent of their changes during a period from the beginning of 2022 to November 2022. A principal component analysis was conducted to summarize the queried items into three factors, which were subsequently used for a cluster analysis. The emerging clusters were characterized in terms of sociodemographic as well as psychographic variables, namely locus of control, life satisfaction, optimism, pessimism, human values, and food values. The segment that appears to be most affected by rising food prices consists of about 28% of the sample's respondents and is characterized by a strong engagement in saving behaviors. These consumers are less satisfied with their lives and more pessimistic, corresponding to their lower incomes and lower likelihood to be fully employed. Communication and policy measures need to be designed in a way that these consumers regain stability and become more confident about the future.

The role of life satisfaction and locus of control in changing purchase intentions for organic and local food during the pandemic.

This study investigates the relation between locus of control, life satisfaction, and Covid-19 related changes in consumers' intentions to purchase organic or local food. It is assumed that people with high internal locus of control pro-actively engage in pro-environmental behaviors, e.g. organic or local food consumption. In addition, literature suggests that internal locus of control positively influences life satisfaction and that the relation between life satisfaction and changes in local and organic food purchase intentions during the Covid-19 pandemic is mediated through food choice motives. The results of this study confirm these theoretical considerations. However, concerning the relation between internal locus of control and stated changes in food choices, a significant and positive relation could only be found between internal locus of control and the willingness to purchase more locally produced food items since the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, but not between internal locus of control and the importance attached to organically produced food. As locus of control and life satisfaction have mainly been applied in health-related contexts so far, this study addresses the lack of research concerning its application in food and consumer behavior research. Comprehensive knowledge on these relations adds to theoretical framework building, and further research on these measures in different food-related contexts is necessary.

How important is local food to organic-minded consumers?

The study deals with German consumers' attitudes towards organic food and local food, their food purchase behaviour and their personal characteristics. The purpose is to investigate the differences in attitudes and willingness-to-pay values between consumers who consider the organic production of food (very) important and those who consider it less important. This study combines a consumer survey with an in-store, discrete choice experiment. In the analysis, findings from the consumer survey were related to the choices made by consumers in the experiment. Consumers' preferences and willingness-to-pay values were estimated through random parameter logit modelling. Organic-minded consumers (i.e. those who regarded organic food production as (very) important in the survey) have stronger preferences and estimated willingness-to-pay values for organic as well as local products. Locally produced food, as opposed to food from neighbouring countries or non-EU countries, is preferred over organically produced food by both consumer groups which demonstrates that organic-minded consumers do not only consider organic food production as important, but also value local food production in a purchase situation. Hence, it can be assumed that local food production complements organic food production for the group of organic-minded consumers. This contribution is the first study dealing with local and organic food purchase behaviour in Germany that examines four different products and is carried out in rural as well as urban locations in four different regions. Due to the application of a choice experiment including no-choice options and binding purchase decisions, the results are expected to be closer to real purchase situations than results of direct questioning and choice experiments in online applications.

ERPs to stimulus identification in persons with restrained eating behavior.

Restrained eating is an eating behavior in which hunger and satiety are not the only triggers for starting or ending a meal. Rather, cognitive factors control food consumption in these persons. The present study served to investigate cortical stimulus processing in restrained and unrestrained eaters by means of event-related potentials (ERPs). ERPs should differ between these two groups and this difference should vary according to food intake. ERPs were recorded from 20 female restrained and 20 female unrestrained eaters in a word identification task in which food-related and food-unrelated words were repeatedly presented tachistoscopically. Half of the participants of each group were tested after food intake, the other half after food deprivation. Although, there were no differences between the ERPs of food-related and food-unrelated words, ERPs were more positive going in restrained eaters compared with unrestrained eaters. Food intake led to a decrease of the P2-amplitude in restrained eaters while increasing it in unrestrained eaters, regardless of stimulus-type. The results suggest that restrained eaters generally differ in their cortical stimulus processing from unrestrained eaters and that a preload has opponent effects in both groups of participants in the early states of stimulus processing.