Reputation and emotion: how the mind drives our food preferences and choices

The study analyzed a regression model investigating the impact of “food reputation” on “willingness to eat” (WTE) through the sequential mediation of “food emotions” (positive and negative) and “food preference” in participants’ preferred (pizza) and dispreferred (offal) foods. Analyses revealed that “food reputation” generally has a positive and significant indirect effect (through the mediation of “food emotions” and “food preference”) on the “WTE” in both preferred and dispreferred foods. It also emerged a positive mediation effect of “positive food emotions” in predicting the “WTE” preferred and dispreferred food. “Negative food emotions” have a negative mediation effect in predicting the “WTE” dispreferred food. Results showed that positive and negative food emotions have a greater impact on “WTE” for the dispreferred food than for the preferred one. Results highlight how emotions related to a particular food significantly influence the willingness to eat it. However, a clear predominance of cognitive factors (food reputation) over emotional ones in predicting the “WTE” of preferred and dispreferred foods was also found. This predominance is confirmed by the latest hypothesis, which shows that foods with a worse reputation are also those that are more influenced by emotions.