TY - JOUR
T1 - A self-report measure of attitudes toward the eating of insects
T2 - construction and validation of the Entomophagy Attitude Questionnaire
AU - La Barbera, Francesco
AU - Verneau, Fabio
AU - Videbæk, Pernille Nørgaard
AU - Amato, Mario
AU - Grunert, Klaus G.
PY - 2020/1
Y1 - 2020/1
N2 - Research has made steps towards the understanding of the main drivers and barriers related to Western consumers’ acceptance of food with ingredients derived from insects. Nevertheless, research has been hampered by the absence of a comprehensive, specific, and validated instrument for measuring consumer attitudes towards entomophagy. The current study presents a new self-report instrument for addressing this issue. The instrument was built upon three conceptual cores, which are reflected in the three factors emerged and tested through factor analyses performed on a representative sample of the Danish population (Study 1: N = 975), and a convenience Italian sample (Study 2: N = 543). The first factor represents the negative evaluation of direct entomophagy and is closely connected to disgust. The second factor represents the positive evaluation of direct entomophagy and is closely linked to individuals’ interest to try novel experiences and to eat novel foods. The third factor addresses indirect entomophagy, that is, the attitude towards using insects for feeding other animals that are reared for human consumption. Compared to existing measures of disgust and neophobia, the new instrument performs better in predicting intention in relation to both direct and indirect entomophagy.
AB - Research has made steps towards the understanding of the main drivers and barriers related to Western consumers’ acceptance of food with ingredients derived from insects. Nevertheless, research has been hampered by the absence of a comprehensive, specific, and validated instrument for measuring consumer attitudes towards entomophagy. The current study presents a new self-report instrument for addressing this issue. The instrument was built upon three conceptual cores, which are reflected in the three factors emerged and tested through factor analyses performed on a representative sample of the Danish population (Study 1: N = 975), and a convenience Italian sample (Study 2: N = 543). The first factor represents the negative evaluation of direct entomophagy and is closely connected to disgust. The second factor represents the positive evaluation of direct entomophagy and is closely linked to individuals’ interest to try novel experiences and to eat novel foods. The third factor addresses indirect entomophagy, that is, the attitude towards using insects for feeding other animals that are reared for human consumption. Compared to existing measures of disgust and neophobia, the new instrument performs better in predicting intention in relation to both direct and indirect entomophagy.
KW - Attitudes
KW - Direct entomophagy
KW - Indirect entomophagy
KW - Insects
KW - Validation
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85071839490&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.foodqual.2019.103757
DO - 10.1016/j.foodqual.2019.103757
M3 - Journal article
AN - SCOPUS:85071839490
SN - 0950-3293
VL - 79
JO - Food Quality and Preference
JF - Food Quality and Preference
M1 - 103757
ER -