Purpose The study focused on the Chilean olive oil market. The purpose of this paper is to determine the incidence of psychographic variables in the purchasing frequency of this product in an emerging market. Design/methodology/approach A face-to-face survey was applied to a stratified sample in the Biobío Region (Chile). The food neophobia scale (FNS) and list of values (LOV) were used simultaneously to measure psychographic variables. A multinomial logit model was estimated to determine the relationship between olive oil purchasing frequency and psychographic variables. Findings Results suggest that psychographic variables can explain olive oil purchasing frequency in the Chilean market. For a new food product, neophilia and the values of external and hedonistic dimensions can explain the higher purchasing frequency of the product. Just as in other research studies, the combined use of psychographic and sociodemographic variables performed well in segmenting a new food market. Research limitations/implications Results should be interpreted for the purchasing behavior of a new food in the context of an emerging market. Future research should expand the geographic zone to apply the survey and incorporate other variables such as ethnocentrism or ethnic identity. Originality/value Most available research studies have investigated separately the incidence of both variables in food consumption in developed, cosmopolitan and intercultural markets. This is the first approach in jointly applying the psychographic variables FNS and LOV in an emerging market and using olive oil as a case study.