Decisions based on feelings rather than facts

Angela Bearth, Ph.D., ETH Zurich, revisited work previously done on intuitive toxicology in her presentation, “Intuitive toxicology revisited: People’s understanding of toxicological principles and implications for the risk perception of chemicals.” Bearth related consumers’ knowledge about toxicological principles to their risk perceptions and preferences for a variety of consumer products (e.g., cleaning products, medicines, foods). The study confirms that consumers have very limited knowledge regarding the processes undertaken to ensure the safety of consumer products. An area of particular concern was misconceptions held regarding man-made versus natural chemicals.

Food technologies such as gene technology or meat cultured from stem cells can be perceived as unnatural and thus evoke feelings of disgust which will divert individuals from accepting the product. Michael Siegrist, Ph.D., ETH Zurich examined whether different food technologies evoke different levels of disgust. Participants responded to questions about a variety of new food technology applications – genetically modified meat, edible nanotechnology coating films, artificial meat and synthetically produced food additives. The study, “The impact of disgust on risk perception and acceptance of novel food technologies,” suggests that willingness to eat was negatively associated with disgust responses toward the technologies.

Gulbanu Kaptan, Ph.D., Leeds University, and her team of researchers examined the role of cognitive and affective judgements in food evaluations and eating decisions. Cognitive judgements were represented by concerns about food being nutritious and safe, whereas affective judgements were represented by ethics, craving and disgust. An online survey was conducted to determine how these attributes were related to food evaluations and eating decisions.

Source: The irrational consumer: Decision making based on feelings rather than facts