Our Apples are Healthier than your Apples: Deciphering the Healthiness Bias for Domestic and Foreign Products

Abstract

This study extends previous research by exploring perceptions of healthiness in the international food marketplace. To this end, it aims to fill an important gap by shedding light on the role of country of origin in shaping perceptions of healthiness. The authors provide evidence that domestic and foreign food products elicit different perceptions of healthiness. Consumers choose domestic products because they perceive them as healthier and more natural. The effect holds across different samples and product categories (apples, tomatoes, bread, and yogurt). However, this healthiness bias vanishes when products are presented as posing health risks and when products are introduced with a dual identity (i.e., both foreign and domestic). Researching these health-related effects helps provide a better understanding of consumer attitudes toward domestic- versus foreign-made food products.

It is Domestic, it Must Be Healthy: How Health Consciousness and Consumer Ethnocentrism Shape Healthiness Perception and Purchase Intentions of Domestic Food

“…Our aim is to address this gap in scientific literature by clarifying the effect of health conscious-ness on domestic food choices. Second, we extend existing findings by Gineikiene et al (2016) by showing that health consciousness is an important individual trait in domestic food choices beyond consumer ethnocentrism. Third, this is the first study that analyzes CET in light of food healthiness perception.…”

“…Based on evidence that individuals prefer domestic products (Bilkey & Nes, 1982), for example, British consumers choose domestic food rather than foreign (Balabanis & Diamantopoulos, 2004), we propose that health consciousness could be related to domestic food healthiness perceptions. Domestic and foreign food products also evoke different healthiness perceptions (Gineikiene et al, 2016). Gineikiene et al (2016) proposed social categorization theory (Turner et al, 1987) as a tool to explain this healthiness bias, when domestic products are perceived to be healthier than foreign ones, suggesting that domestic products are perceived as belonging to the in-group and categorized with the self, whereas foreign products are seen as belonging to the outgroup.…”

“…Another factor which plays a role in consumer product choice is consumer ethnocentrism (CET), a belief about the morality of purchasing foreign products (Shimp & Sharma, 1987). Scholars agree that consumers often prefer domestic rather than foreign food products (Bilkey & Nes, 1982;Balabanis & Diamantopoulos, 2004, Gineikiene et al, 2016, and previous research showed that consumer ethnocentrism is the cause of domestic food preferences (e.g., Balabanis & Diamantopoulos, 2004). An alternative explanation was provided by Gineikiene et al (2016), who suggested that social categorization theory may explain consumers' preferences for domestic food.…”

“…Scholars agree that consumers often prefer domestic rather than foreign food products (Bilkey & Nes, 1982;Balabanis & Diamantopoulos, 2004, Gineikiene et al, 2016, and previous research showed that consumer ethnocentrism is the cause of domestic food preferences (e.g., Balabanis & Diamantopoulos, 2004). An alternative explanation was provided by Gineikiene et al (2016), who suggested that social categorization theory may explain consumers' preferences for domestic food. Moreover, domestic and foreign food products evoke different healthiness perceptions, more precisely, people evaluate domestic products (apples, tomatoes, bread and yogurt) to be healthier than non-domestic ones and are also more willing to buy them (Gineikiene et al, 2016).…”

“…An alternative explanation was provided by Gineikiene et al (2016), who suggested that social categorization theory may explain consumers' preferences for domestic food. Moreover, domestic and foreign food products evoke different healthiness perceptions, more precisely, people evaluate domestic products (apples, tomatoes, bread and yogurt) to be healthier than non-domestic ones and are also more willing to buy them (Gineikiene et al, 2016). However, previous studies have not investigated how health consciousness affects healthiness perception and willingness to buy domestic food.…”