Context‐sensitive thinking influences judgments of expected satiation from combinations of foods: The role of individual and cultural variations

Abstract

Prior research has suggested the influence of thinking styles in judgments of foods, with individual and cultural differences. Here, we tested whether context sensitivity may influence judgments of a food's basic characteristics (e.g., expected satiation) in the presence of other foods in the surrounding context. Given their greater sensitivity to contextual information, participants from Singapore (compared with the USA) perceived central/focal food items as more satiating when surrounded by other foods that were low (vs. high) in expected satiation-a tendency positively correlated with measures of holistic and interdependent thinking styles (Study 1). Judgments of a central food were influenced by the foods surrounding it when participants had been experimentally primed into high context sensitivity (vs. low context sensitivity) (Study 2). These findings reveal that context-sensitivity may contribute to the emergence of individual and cultural diversity in consumers' perceptions and judgments about multiple foods that are encountered together. Practical ApplicationsAlthough context sensitivity is well known for its implications on perceptions and judgments, rarely has it been extended to judgments of food-a domain of everyday life with numerous health implications. We demonstrate how context sensitivity may guide food judgments in the presence of multiple discrete food items in the surrounding context (e.g., a multi-food meal or display). We show that context sensitivity, both as a tendency that varies across cultures and as a situationally malleable style of cognition, may lead to evaluations of a focal food item in a group being influenced by perceived characteristics of surrounding foods. Given its cultural variance and situational malleability, context sensitivity may be a promising consumer-oriented target when designing food-related environments (e.g., food displays or mealscapes), especially in cultures which place greater emphasis on contextual information as a routine in daily thought. | INTRODUCTIONAcross the various physical surroundings and spaces we navigate, the food environment is among the most pervasive. Each day, we are constantly exposed to a diverse array of foods, and repeatedly faced with decisions about "whether to eat," "what to eat," and "how much to eat." Importantly, a large body of research on consumer and ingestive behavior has demonstrated that the food environment and the

Different receiver responses to rewarded referrals: The moderating effect of styles of thinking

“…In addition, Alnawas et al (2023) confirm that holistic (vs. analytical) thinking styles are more likely to weaken the negative impact of the severity of service failure on brand tolerance. Other studies have also confirmed the important role of different styles of thinking in consumer behavior decisions (Cheon et al, 2022;Monga & John, 2008). Based on the above literature, holistic (vs. analytical) people tend to consider more contextual factors related to the object and are more likely to evaluate the object in its broader context.…”

“…A review of the above literature shows that although many studies have explored how styles of thinking affect consumers' cognitive and decision‐making process (Cheon et al, 2022; Monga & John, 2008; Wang et al, 2023), however, few studies highlight the potential impact of styles of thinking on receivers' responses to the referrals. In this research, accordingly, we propose that holistic (vs. analytic) receivers are more likely to consider the contextual factors in RRPs (e.g., the presence of rewards and tie strength), which may result in different receiver responses to the referrals.…”

Analytic-holistic cognitive styles affect consumer responses to food and beverage samples during sensory evaluation

“…For example, “Western” (analytic) individuals (e.g., Danes or U.S. Americans), compared to “Eastern” (holistic) individuals (e.g., Chinese people), focused more on the central aspect of the stimuli. Moreover, analytic and holistic cultures have been found to differ in perception of food-related stimuli ( Choi, 2016 ; Choi et al, 2020 ; Chrea et al, 2004 ; Togawa et al, 2019 ), scale usage ( Feng and O’Mahony, 2017 ; Yeh et al, 1998 ), variance consistency ( Beekman and Seo, 2023 ), and environmental effect ( Beekman and Seo, 2022 ; Cheon et al, 2022 ). These imply that the AH theory might offer insight into why consumer responses to identical test samples varied among groups of different cultures, especially “Western” versus “Eastern.”…”