Examining Essentialistic Beliefs About Food

Sponsor

Clinical Nutrition Research Centre, Singapore (Other)

Overall Status

Completed

CT.gov ID

NCT04704726

Collaborator

(none)

600

Enrollment

Location

3.3

Actual Duration (Months)

182.6

Patients Per Site Per Month

Study Details

Study Description

Brief Summary

This project seeks to test whether people maintain essentialistic beliefs about food (foods as having immutable underlying 'essences' that contribute to the food's attributes and properties). Currently, there are studies on essentialistic beliefs on topics such as: race, genes, and natural objects. However, there is limited research applying the concept of essentialism to food. In addition, in food studies, participants' perception and acceptability of foods were being explored but what remains unknown is whether they have any degree of essentialistic beliefs towards food which influences their perception and acceptability of food.

Therefore, the aim of this study is to gain in-depth knowledge and understanding on whether people maintain essentialistic beliefs about food, and determine whether these beliefs may be associated with attitudes and expectations of foods that vary in their levels of processing.

Condition or Disease	Intervention/Treatment	Phase
Adults

Detailed Description

Objectives:

To gain in-depth knowledge and understanding on whether people maintain essentialistic beliefs about food (foods as having immutable underlying 'essences' that contribute to the food's attributes and properties).
To determine whether these beliefs may be associated with attitudes and expectations of foods that vary in their levels of processing.
To explore the perceptions of essentialistic transference: The belief that the essence of a food is transferred to a person who consumes the food, which manifests the properties of the food in the consumer (E.g., the belief that people who have a diet of eating fast-running animals are also fast runners).

Study Design:

This study involves 2 parts: Study 1A & Study 1B.

Study 1A:

300 participants in Singapore, aged between 21-65 years old will be recruited to do an online survey on Qualtrics. Participants would first rate their baseline appetite before proceeding to the survey. For this study, the food categories will be: Milk, Rice, Carrot and Chicken. There will be a total of 7 different kinds of foods varying in the levels of processing per category and the images of these foods will be presented in a randomized order. Participants will rate their perceptions of the properties of foods (e.g. nutritiousness, naturalness, familiarity, liking, taste, stereotypical trait, and processing) on a scale that ranges from "Not at all" to "Very much".

After rating their perceptions of the properties of foods, participants will complete questionnaires measuring: Essentialistic beliefs about food (EFS: 6-point scale from "Strongly Disagree" to "Strongly Agree"), perceptions of essentialistic transference (ETS: 6-point scale with 2 opposite traits as anchors e.g. "Very Irritable" to "Very good-natured"), nutrition knowledge (NKS: 6-point scale from "Strongly Disagree" to "Strongly Agree"), importance of food naturalness (FNS: 6-point scale from "Strongly Disagree" to "Strongly Agree") and consumers' fears towards food technology (FTNS: 7-point scale from "Strongly Disagree" to "Strongly Agree").

Study 1B:

300 participants in Singapore, aged between 21-65 years old will be recruited to do an online survey on Qualtrics. Participants would first rate their baseline appetite before proceeding to the survey. For this study, the food categories will be: Fish, Orange, Napa Cabbage, Peanut and Beef. There will be a total of 7 different kinds of foods varying in the levels of processing per category and 2 foods-in-name (e.g. Vuna and Impossible burger), and the images of these foods will be presented in a randomize order. Participants will rate their perceptions of the properties of foods (e.g. nutritiousness, naturalness, familiarity, liking, taste, stereotypical trait, and processing) on a scale that ranges from "Not at all" to "Very much".

Study Design

Study Type:

Observational

Actual Enrollment :

600 participants

Observational Model:

Cohort

Time Perspective:

Cross-Sectional

Official Title:

Examining Essentialistic Beliefs About Food

Actual Study Start Date :

Sep 14, 2020

Actual Primary Completion Date :

Dec 23, 2020

Actual Study Completion Date :

Dec 23, 2020

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcome Measures

Consumers' perceptions of food [Baseline measure]
Participants will be shown images of different kinds of foods varying in the levels of processing and they will rate their perceptions of the properties of foods (e.g., nutritiousness, naturalness, familiarity, liking, taste, stereotypical trait, and processing) on a scale that ranges from "Not at all" to "Very much".
Essentialistic beliefs about food (food as having immutable underlying 'essences' that contribute to the food's attributes and properties) [Baseline measure]
The essentialistic beliefs about food will be measured by a scale that we developed: Essentialism of Food Scale (EFS): 6-point scale from "Strongly Disagree" to "Strongly Agree".
Perceptions of essentialistic transference [Baseline measure]
Perceptions of essentialistic transference refers to the belief that the essence of a food is transferred to a person who consumes the food, which manifests the properties of the food in the consumer (e.g., the belief that people who have a diet of eating fast-running animals are also fast runners). It will be measured by a scale that we developed: Essentialistic Transference Scale (ETS): 6-point scale with 2 opposite traits as anchors e.g. "Very Irritable" to "Very good-natured"
Nutrition knowledge [Baseline measure]
Nutrition knowledge will be measured by the Nutrition Knowledge scale (NKS): 6-point scale from "Strongly Disagree" to "Strongly Agree".
Perception towards the importance of food naturalness [Baseline measure]
Importance of food naturalness will be measured by the Food Naturalness Scale (FNS): 6-point scale from "Strongly Disagree" to "Strongly Agree".
Consumers' fears towards food technology [Baseline measure]
Consumers' fears towards food technology will be measured by the Food Technology Neophobia Scale (FTNS): 7-point scale from "Strongly Disagree" to "Strongly Agree".

Eligibility Criteria

Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study:

21 Years to 65 Years

Sexes Eligible for Study:

All

Inclusion Criteria:

21-65 years old

Exclusion Criteria:

None

Contacts and Locations

Locations

	Site	City	State	Country	Postal Code
1	Singapore	Singapore		Singapore

Sponsors and Collaborators

Clinical Nutrition Research Centre, Singapore

Investigators

Principal Investigator: Bobby Cheon, PhD, Bobby_Cheon@sics.a-star.edu.sg

Study Documents (Full-Text)

None provided.

More Information

Publications

None provided.

Responsible Party:

Ciaran Forde, Senior Principal Investigator, Clinical Nutrition Research Centre, Singapore

ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier:

NCT04704726

Other Study ID Numbers:

2020-05-045

First Posted:

Jan 12, 2021

Last Update Posted:

Jan 12, 2021

Last Verified:

Jan 1, 2021

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated Drug Product:

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated Device Product:

Study Results

No Results Posted as of Jan 12, 2021