Central Persons in Sustainable (Food) Consumption

Abstract

What people eat has become a highly political issue, closely intertwined with public health, environmental concerns, and climate change. Individuals’ consumption decisions tend to be greatly influenced by the people that surround them, and this seems to be especially true when it comes to food. In recent years, alongside close contacts, such as family and friends, a myriad of social influencers have appeared on the screens, sharing opinions on what (not) to eat. Presenting results from a youth survey conducted in Sweden in 2019 (N = 443), this paper shows that social media have become the primary source of information about food and eating for youths, followed by schools and families. However, primary sources of influence continue to be parents and the family at large. Furthermore, the study shows that it is possible to identify ‘central persons’, i.e., relatively clear-cut groups of people whose food choices—measured as tendency to eat climate friendly—is mirrored by the youths, both in their everyday food preferences and in their broader political awareness as expressed through political consumerism. A conclusion from this is that certain people can be particularly successful at inspiring larger numbers of other people to engage with healthier and environmentally friendlier (food) consumption in a society.

Communication of food‐related health risks and benefits – a systematic review (2018‐2022)

“…These were the only statistically significant variations found in the study. On the contrary, a Swedish study (Zorell, 2022) of young people (ages 16 to 24) on how consumption decisions tend to be greatly influenced by the people that surround them, found that ecological criteria rank lowest in influence on food choice among youth. However, there were notable differences between men and women.…”

“…• Family and friends (Zorell, 2022;Kılıç et al, 2020) • School (Zorell, 2022) EFSA Supporting publication 2023:EN-8203…”

“…• Internet and social media (Zorell, 2022;Tiozzo et al, 2019;DunnGalvin et al, 2019;Bolek, 2020) • Mass media (Zorell, 2022;Tiozzo et al, 2019;Kılıç et al, 2020;DunnGalvin et al, 2019; Bolek, 2020) • Supermarkets and packaging (Henchion et al, 2019;Kılıç et al, 2020;Lamonaca et al, 2022;Tessitore et al, 2020) • Books, magazines and scientific journals (Tiozzo et al, 2019;Bolek, 2020) • Healthcare professionals (Tiozzo et al, 2019;Kılıç et al, 2020;DunnGalvin et al, 2019;DunnGalvin et al, 2019;Bolek, 2020) • Government and health authorities (Tiozzo et al, 2019;Bolek, 2020) • Online games (Koch, 2022) • Narrative messages (Wolf et al, 2020) The review also considered:…”

Green food supply chain management as a solution for the mitigation of food supply chain management risk for improving the environmental health level

“…This study is concerned with large production and consumption of hazardous and wasteful food which cause growing environment and health problems. These problems were behind the risk of increasing in preventable diseases, early deaths, and environmental disasters through the entire world [ 12 ].…”

Diffusion of eating behaviour in different social networks: A study protocol and preliminary reflections from a randomized controlled trial

“…Social scientists, social psychologists, and behavioural economists show in numerous studies that social norms, social facilitation, shared social identities (e.g., social class, culture, gender, age, etc. ), or being a social role model or 'central person' can be key factors affecting whether, what, when, and how much individuals eat (3)(4)(5)(6)(7)(8)(9). Likewise, studies from media, education, and health research show that exposure to more as well as to less obvious forms of advertisements, marketing, and recommendations, especially in social media, can affect individual attitudes towards certain food products and the likelihood to consume them -even when individuals disapprove or are unwilling to acknowledge such in uence (10,11).…”