Food preferences in daily life: Cognitive, affective and social predictors

Abstract

Based on prior research showing that a food cognition model employing the evaluative dimensions of pleasure/taste, health and convenience could significantly predict preferences for a representative list of hypothetical meals, the present study demonstrates that the model can effectively predict preferences for recent meals actually consumed. A total of 269 males (N = 122) and females (N = 147), ranging in age from 14 to 83 years, each evaluated three of their recent meals. Regression analysis yielded significant results very similar to those obtained for the hypothetical meals. Substantial differences were also found between the evaluations of morning, midday and evening meals: the health and convenience criteria are most heavily weighted for morning meals, whereas general “liking” is most heavily weighted for midday and evening meals. Additional results showed that the predictive ability of the model can be marginally improved by including a cost factor. Newly designed measures of the idiosyncratic meanings associated with particular meals contributed in some instances to the prediction of preferences but did not generally yield consistent results.