Regulatory focus and food choice motives. Prevention orientation associated with mood, convenience, and familiarity
Abstract
The authors tested the robustness of the Food Choice Questionnaire (FCQ) with a U.S. sample and examined the relationship between individual differences in regulatory focus and everyday food choice motives. Although a popular measure in cross-culture research, the FCQ has seen limited use with U.S. samples, and its psychometric properties have not been tested in this population. American participants (n = 408) completed the Regulatory Focus Questionnaire and a measure of food choice motives. The data did not support the nine-factor FCQ structure. An ad hoc revised measure of food choice motives showed complete measurement invariance (loadings, intercepts, and residuals) across regulatory focus. Regarding everyday food choices, participants with a prevention focus placed greater importance on mood, convenience, and familiarity than participants with a promotion focus. There were no significant differences regarding the importance of health, environmental protection, impression management, natural content, price, and sensory appeal. Several food choice motives were positively correlated. Compared with the promotion-focused participants, the prevention-focused participants more strongly associated the importance of sensory appeal with the importance of natural content and the importance of price.
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Convenience orientation is positively associated with hedonism or sensory appeal.
“Previous studies suggest that convenience orientation is positively associated with hedonism or sensory appeal (Fotopoulos, Krystallis, Vassallo, & Pagiaslis, 2009;Pula, Parks, & Ross, 2014).”
From Relationships between functional food consumption and individual traits and values: A segmentation approach (2021) · cites this paper as Pula et al., 2014
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- Authors
- Pula, K., Parks, C. D., & Ross, C. F.
- Affiliations
- Washington State University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Pula, Kacy
- Venue
- Appetite
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2014-07
- Volume
- 78
- Pages
- 15-22
- ISSN
- 0195-6663 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2002832267
- Cited by
- 116
- References
- 42
- Citations by year
- 2026: 8 · 2025: 9 · 2024: 9 · 2023: 7 · 2022: 7 · 2021: 17 · 2020: 15 · 2019: 8 · 2018: 5 · 2017: 11 · 2016: 9 · 2015: 7 · 2014: 4
- FWCI
- 9.62
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Appetite (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Nursing › Nutrition and Dietetics › Nutrition, Health and Food Behavior
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Consumer Attitudes and Food Labeling
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Applied Psychology › Behavioral Health and Interventions
- Keywords
- regulatory focus, prevention focus, promotion focus, food choice motives, Food Choice Questionnaire, measurement invariance, psychometric properties, mood, convenience, food familiarity, sensory appeal, price, impression management, health motivation
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Affect, Aged, Attitude, Choice Behavior, Diet, Feeding Behavior, Female, Food Preferences, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Motivation, Surveys and Questionnaires, United States, Health Behavior, Recognition, Psychology, Young Adult, Fast Foods
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