Consumer fear and healthy eating during COVID-19 pandemic
Marketing Intelligence & Planning
ISSN: 0263-4503
Article publication date: 21 December 2021
Issue publication date: 10 March 2022
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to contribute to the healthy eating literature by analyzing whether fear of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), ability to prepare food and the safety-seeking are antecedents of the intention to consume healthy foods during COVID-19 pandemic.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors conducted two studies. The first study was done with a sample of 546 valid respondents. Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) was used to analyze data. The second study was qualitative, in which 40 subjects took part. Data were analyzed using thematic analysis.
Findings
The main findings reveal that ability to prepare food and the safety-seeking are strong antecedents of the intention to consume healthy foods. In addition, safety-seeking mediates the relationship between fear of COVID-19 and intention to consume healthy eating. However, high levels of fear did not influence the ability to prepare food and intention to consume healthy foods. Also, the ability to prepare food does not mediate the relation between fear of COVID-19 and intention to consume healthy food.
Originality/value
This study is among the first to consider terror management propositions to analyze the intention to consume healthy foods during COVID-19 pandemic. From a scientific point of view, it has several contributions to the literature. First, this study provides advances and innovation in the field by identifying new explanatory relations. Second, this study extends the scope of terror management health model (TMHM) by analyzing it in the pandemic context. Third, the findings seem to provide empirical support for recent criticism of TMHM assumptions. Moreover, practical implications are outlined to public health decision-makers and healthy food businesses on increasing consumers’ intention to healthy eating.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
This study was financed by the Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES), Brasil, Award Number: Finance Code 001, Funder DOI: CNPJ - 00.889.834/0001-08. The authors wish to express their gratitude to the anonymous reviewers and the editor for their helpful comments.
Conflict of interest: We declare that there is no conflict of interest.
Citation
Campos, P.d.O., Mélo, L.B.d., de Souza, J.C.V., Santana, P.N.d., Matte, J. and Costa, M.F.d. (2022), "Consumer fear and healthy eating during COVID-19 pandemic", Marketing Intelligence & Planning, Vol. 40 No. 2, pp. 227-241. https://doi.org/10.1108/MIP-04-2021-0125
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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