Conceptualization of food choice motives and consumption among Japanese in light of meal, gender, and age effects

Abstract

Appropriate choice and consumption of meals are important to optimize diet quality. Nevertheless, the relationship between the conceptualization of food choice motives and consumption has yet to be elucidated. The current study attempts to delineate the effects of meals (breakfast, lunch, and dinner), gender, and age on psychologically defined food properties in three conceptual dimensions, namely, desired-to-be-eaten, ought-to-be-eaten, and actually-consumed foods, based on self-reporting among 100 Japanese participants. Results showed that there were large discrepancies between food choice motives (composed of desired- and ought-food dimensions) and actually-consumed foods. Accordingly, the effects of meal on food properties were examined in each dimension respectively, and meal effects were supported in all dimensions. Although food choice motives did not differ across age groups, people in their 40’s rated the properties of the foods they actually consumed substantially lower than did other age groups. No gender effect was observed. There were higher correlations between desired- and ought-dimensions across meals compared with between desired- and actual- and between ought- and actual-dimensions. In addition, association between dimensions was stronger at dinner compared with breakfast.

Introduction

Throughout our lifetime, we typically consume more than 60,000 meals. Accordingly, the appropriate choice and consumption of meals is important for maintaining a good quality of life as well as physical health. We anecdotally and experientially know that both food choice motives and consumption of foods are substantially influenced by time of day, and are further differentiated by demographic factors such as age and gender. Nevertheless, the conceptualization of meal choice motives and consumption has yet to be elucidated.

Several studies have reported conceptual and behavioral differences among people’s meal choices in evaluative, socio-emotional, contextual, and demographic aspects. Schutz’s conclusion (1988) that the context of food intake is a determinant factor of food selection led Rappoport and his colleagues to investigate the effect of the context (the time of day a meal is consumed) on the evaluative and the socio-emotional connotations of foods (Rappoport et al., 2001, Rappoport et al., 1993). They reported that the morning meal was perceived as quick and convenient while the evening meal was perceived as happy and family-oriented. Additionally, Kramer, Rock, and Engell (1992) reported that the perceived appropriateness of food choice and intake largely depends on the time of day. Thus, the time of day that a meal is taken seems to be strongly related to various aspects of our conceptualization of a normal meal. Moreover, not only differences among meals, but also differences between genders and among age groups in the mental representation of meals were reported (Rappoport et al., 1993). Hence, it is essential that the effects of meal, gender, and age be taken into account when investigating people’s conceptualization of their own daily food intake.

In addition to meal, gender, and age effects, the results in Rappoport et al. (2001) suggested that ideal meals (what participants are motivated to eat) and actual meals (what participants most recently ate) should be examined separately because of the discrepancy between the two. Specifically, ideal meals were considered more expensive, less convenient, happier, more formal, more social, heavier, and more unusual than actual meals. Likewise, Kramer et al. (1992) examined the relationship among the appropriateness of food for each meal, food intake, and hedonic evaluation. They concluded that the appropriateness of a food for a meal was not necessarily reflected in food consumption or hedonic evaluation, implying a discrepancy between foods that were supposed to be eaten and those that were actually consumed or hedonically desired. These discrepancies among the conceptual dimensions of food fall into the framework of the self-discrepancy theory (Higgins, 1987) where the association between the anchoring dimensions (ideal and ought) and the actual dimension within oneself and one’s significant others’ perspectives is important to mental health. The current study adopted the self-discrepancy theory to analyze food properties in the desired-food dimension (what is desired to be eaten), the ought-food dimension (what is supposed to be eaten), which together represent food choice motives, and the actual-food dimension (what is usually eaten). To avoid a substantial number of comparisons, significant others’ perspectives were not examined.

Because food choice is influenced by a mixture of expectations about health, sensory attributes, attitudes, price, ethical considerations, the mood characteristics of foods (Rogers, 1996, Rozin, 1996, Schutz, 1988, Sparks et al., 1995), and convenience (Michela & Contento, 1986), the Food Choice Questionnaire (FCQ; Steptoe, Pollard, & Wardle, 2000) was chosen for the current study to specifically measure domains related to food choice motives and corresponding domains for actual food consumption rather than the socio-emotional properties used in the previous study (Rappoport et al., 1993). The validity and generality of the measured domains in the scale are well established, and the FCQ has been used in various fields such as marketing (Marshall and Bell, 2003, Prescott et al., 2002, Rappoport et al., 1993), studying food-related physical health (de Boer et al., 2007, Sun, 2008), and eating attitudes (Sun, 2008) across cultures (Pollard, Steptoe, & Wardle, 1998).

Hence, the current study aimed to provide an integrative view of the effects of meal (breakfast, lunch, and dinner), gender, and age on self-reported food properties in the desired-, ought-, and actual-dimensions among Japanese. Additionally, correlations among these conceptual food dimensions across meals were explored.