Emotions in consumer research: An application to novel food products

Laros,F.J.M.

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Emotions in consumer research: An application to novel food products

Laros,F.J.M.

Abstract

During the last decades the general public has been confronted with a continuous stream of radically new food products as well as technologies that can be used to improve food production and food products. It is rather difficult, however, to convince consumers to accept these new products. For instance, the majority of consumers reject genetically modified food products completely. When consumers are interested or even concerned about the production of food products, their emotions with respect to a particular food product will be sparked. This dissertation concentrates on the causes and consequences of consumer emotions for different new food products in four projects. The first project lays the groundwork by discussing the structure and content of consumer emotions, and unites seemingly diverging research streams into one framework. In the other three projects consumer emotions associated with novel food products (genetically modified food and functional food) are embedded in frameworks including their antecedents and consequences.