An Augmented Risk Information Seeking Model: Perceived Food Safety Risk Related to Food Recalls

PRISM and Emotions: Understanding the Role of Fear and Hope toward Vaccine Information Seeking Intentions

Vaccines represent one of the greatest health efforts to help combat diseases, yet they often evoke emotional responses among individuals. These emotional responses can influence an individual's desire to seek information about vaccines. The purpose of this research was to examine these relationships further using the Planned Risk Information Seeking Model (PRISM) and explore the role of emotions, specifically fear and hope, on vaccine-related information seeking intentions. Two separate models were tested using the PRISM model, one for fear and one for hope. Results suggest fear did not have a significant direct effect on vaccine information seeking, while hope had a positive and significant relationship. Interestingly, both attitude toward seeking and perceived current knowledge each had a positive relationship with information seeking intentions in the fear and hope models. Future research should continue to examine the role of specific emotions within the PRISM model to better predict information seeking intentions.

Prospective effects of food safety trust on brand evangelism: a moderated-mediation role of consumer perceived ethicality and brand passion

BACKGROUND

The current study integrates brand management literature with food consumption research and develops an integrative framework by combining food safety trust, consumer perceived ethicality, brand evangelism, and brand passion into a single conceptual model.

METHOD

This quantitative study included 228 ready-to-eat consumers in China using purposive sampling. Data were collected at two periods in time, resulting in a time-lag study in which respondents provided data on independent and moderating variables at time 1 and mediating and dependent variables at time 2 with the same respondents from time 1. The hypothesized correlations were tested using SEM and PROCESS Macro techniques.

RESULTS

According to the findings, trust in food safety has a significant impact on brand evangelism and passion. Furthermore, consumer perceived ethicality (CPE) found to have a substantial moderating role between food safety-FS and brand passion. Moreover, we validated the brand passion role as a mediator between brand evangelism and food safety trust, and investigated whether consumer perceived ethicality conditionally affects the strength of the indirect relationship among food safety trust and brand evangelism through brand passion, indicating a moderated-mediation mechanism.

ORIGINALITY

Drawing on Sternberg theory of love, current study is the first of its kind to evaluate the boundary role as well as the conditional indirect influence of customer perceived ethicality among the study's variables and provides useful information for ready-to-eat food brand managers on how to keep them interested in their risk-free food products.

PFAS Contamination: Pathway from Communication to Behavioral Outcomes

ABSTRACTGuided by the risk information seeking and processing model, this study examines social cognitive variables that motivate individuals to actively seek and process information related to per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) contamination. Results indicate that information insufficiency, affective response, and informational subjective norms are positively related to information seeking and systematic processing, which are positively associated with policy support and intention to adopt risk mitigation behaviors. These findings suggest that when communicating the health risks of PFAS contamination to the general public, cognitive, affective, and normative factors are important initial steps to generate public interest in relevant information.

Positive Emotion and Media Dependence: Measuring Risk Information Seeking and Perception in the COVID-19 Pandemic Prevention

Risk perception and information seeking behaviors are affected by individual psychological and situational factors. In the background of COVID-19 prevailing for a long period, this study examined Chinese people's information seeking and processing behavior by the RISP model, which focused on the impact of individual risk perception, affective response, perceived information-gathering capacity, and media trust and the impact of the above factors on information seeking. This study designed an online survey with gender and age quotas among the Chinese population, including a total of 675 valid samples. It was found that the Chinese public's risk perception to pandemic had a positive effect on perceived information-gathering capacity and media trust. Furthermore, both positive emotional responses and negative emotional responses had a positive effect on information seeking behavior. Nurturing positive emotion engendered a holistic perception in pandemic information seeking. In addition, media trust, perceived information-gathering capacity, and subjective norms also positively impact information seeking behavior.

Information Seeking and Risk Reduction Intentions in Response to Environmental Threat Messages: The Role of Message Processing

Communicating complex information about environmental health risks in a single message is impossible. Thus, message designers hope that risk messages encourage people to think more about the message and risks, look for more information, and ultimately make behavior changes. The presentation of information about environmental risks using threat appeals is a common message design strategy thought to increase message engagement and influence attitudes, information seeking, and risk reduction behaviors. We compared lower threat messages, which did not include explicit statements about susceptibility and severity of a risk, to higher threat messages, which did. We combined predictions from the extended parallel process model with dual-process theories of persuasion to examine whether people respond to these types of messages differently. In an online experiment, participants (N = 892) were randomly assigned to a message condition (higher or lower threat) and topic condition (arsenic, bisphenol A, or volatile organic compounds). Overall, participants exposed to higher threat messages (regardless of risk topic) reported experiencing higher levels of fear. Higher levels of fear were associated with more positive thoughts about the message (in alignment with the message advocacy) and fewer negative thoughts about the message (against the message advocacy), both of which influenced message attitudes. Finally, message attitudes were associated with increased information seeking and intentions to engage in risk reduction behaviors.

Explaining education-based difference in systematic processing of COVID-19 information: Insights into global recovery from infodemic

Systematic processing helps individuals identify misinformation during the COVID-19 pandemic and serves as an individual-level measure to fight the infodemic. Highly educated people tend to engage in systematic processing more than their less educated counterparts. We follow a major part of the risk information seeking and processing (RISP) model to explicate this gap. An online survey (N = 1,568) conducted during the early stage of the pandemic in China showed that current knowledge and perceived information gathering capacity both positively mediated the association between education level and systematic processing. Although informational subjective norms were positively associated with systematic processing, we did not observe a significant difference in these norms between highly and less educated individuals. The results clarify the psychological mechanism underlying the education-based difference in systematic processing of the COVID-19 information and corroborate a relevant part of the RISP model. Moreover, our findings offer practical implications for facilitating individuals with less educational attainment to engage in systematic processing, thereby alleviating the negative impact of exposure to misinformation on them. These insights not only apply to managing the infodemic in China, but also inform the global recovery from the infodemic.

Domestic and Imported Food Product Recalls in Japan: Trend Analysis and Preventive Measures

In Japan, 700–800 food products are recalled each year. Food product recalls affect consumer health as well as businesses, depending on the content and scale of the recalls. Approximately 10% of food loss from food manufacturers was generated in 2018 and 2019. In Japan, food product recalls and measures to prevent them have not been sufficiently studied. Therefore, to investigate this issue, about 2300 recalls instigated by regulatory bodies in Japan from 2018 to 2020 were classified based on product category, responsibility, reason for recall, and violation of laws and regulations, and the trends were analyzed. Recalls were primarily associated with violation of the Food Sanitation Law and Food Labeling Act, due to contamination by microorganisms or foreign materials, mis- or non-declaration of expiration or best-before date, and mis- or non-labeling of allergens. Therefore, better management by adopting the Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point and food safety management systems as preventive measures and the design review of ISO 9001: 2018 may be effective in reducing recalls. Moreover, better communication between manufacturing and importing countries to ensure compliance with laws on safety limits of ingredients and label preparation may reduce the number of recalls.

Spillover effects of food recalls: A milk recall scenario experiment in China

Food recall is a major ingredient in food safety with existing literature focusing mainly on its direct impacts. Few studies focus on possible spillover effects. It is hypothesized that food recalls have a spillover effect on the recalled brand and purchase channel. As a test of this hypothesis, a 2-purchase channel by 3-recall strategy scenario experiment was conducted on spillover effects of a milk recall in Beijing, China. The results indicate that food-safety scares have significant negative impacts on consumers' purchase intention on the recalled brand and purchase channel, and the impacts are more significant for online than offline marketing. However, voluntary recalls by online firms help mitigate these negative effects and restore consumers' purchase intention more than offline voluntary recalls. An online food incident creates an issue of trust toward general online platforms. Online vendors should take greater care in guaranteeing food safety and actively take restorative actions such as voluntary recalls after a food safety incident. Results provide empirical evidence for industry organizations and governments to stipulate a strict food safety and incident resolution system for e-commerce.

The Effect of Experience on Anxiety in Food Safety Incidents—An Empirical Study on Infant Formula Safety Incidents in China

Infant formula incidents have endangered the dietary safety and healthy growth of infants and young children and are triggers of the public’s negative emotions, attracting widespread public attention. The aim of this research was to explore how perceived knowledge gap, risk perception, past actual risk experience, and media risk experience affect anxiety. The research data obtained from 506 respondents were divided into groups with actual risk experience and without actual risk experience. Then, PLS-SEM was used to analyze the data. The results show that risk perception mediated the relationship between perceived knowledge gap and anxiety. Specifically, for the group with actual risk experience, perceived knowledge gap had a significant direct impact on anxiety; however, there was no moderation effect of media experience on the relationship between perceived knowledge gap and risk perception. For the group without actual risk experience, perceived knowledge gap had no direct effect on anxiety, and media experience had a significant moderating effect on the relationship between perceived knowledge gap and risk perception. The results suggest that in infant formula safety incidents, actual risk experience and media risk experience have different influence mechanisms on anxiety. Actual risk experience will directly and intuitively bridge the relationship between perceived knowledge gap and anxiety. Meanwhile, groups without actual risk experience tend to be influenced by rational risk judgment, and this process is moderated by media risk experience.

Understanding the Health Behavior Decision-Making Process with Situational Theory of Problem Solving in Online Health Communities: The Effects of Health Beliefs, Message Credibility, and Communication Behaviors on Health Behavioral Intention

Online health communities (OHCs) offer users the opportunity to share and seek health information through these platforms, which in turn influence users' health decisions. Understanding what factors influence people's health decision-making process is essential for not only the design of the OHC, but also for commercial health business who are promoting their products to patients. Previous studies explored the health decision-making process from many factors, but lacked a comprehensive model with a theoretical model. The aim of this paper is to propose a research model from the situational theory of problem solving in relation to forecasting health behaviors in OHCs. An online questionnaire was developed to collect data from 321 members of online health communities (HPV Tieba and HPV vaccina Tieba) who have not received an HPV vaccination. The partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) method was employed for the data analysis. Findings showed that information selection and acquisition is able to forecast HPV vaccination intentions, perceived seriousness and perceived susceptibility can directly impact HPV vaccination intention and have an indirect impact by information selection and acquisition, and perceived message credibility indirectly affected HPV vaccination intention via information selection. The current paper supports health motivations analysis in OHCs, with potential to assist users' health-related decision-making.

Risk Information Seeking Behavior in Disaster Resettlement: A Case Study of Ankang City, China

In 2011, the Chinese government launched a disaster mitigation and preparedness program called the Resettlement of South Shaanxi (RSS). Due to the wide geographical scope and complex interests, the possibility of conflicts was increased during and after resettlement. Efficient risk communication improves the supply of information about risks and meets the risk-related information needs of individuals. Using the risk information seeking and processing (RISP) model, this research applied a structural equation model and survey with a structured questionnaire to study ways to improve risk communication in disaster resettlement. A total of 616 valid questionnaires were provided by study respondents in resettlement sites in Ziyang County, Ankang City, Shaanxi Province. The results indicated the following: (1) the public’s information seeking behavior relies more on village committees and village officials than other channels. Emerging information channels, such as Weibo and WeChat (social media applications in China), do not play leading roles in disseminating risk information. (2) There are differences between the information channels used by residents and the channels that residents believe the most. (3) Relevant channel beliefs, information sufficiency, perceived hazard characteristics, and self-efficacy directly influence risk information seeking behavior. However, the capacity to gather information has non-significant direct influences on information seeking behavior. (4) Perceived hazard characteristics and self-efficacy drive risk information seeking behavior in both direct and indirect ways through information sufficiency.

Food Safety Risk Assessment of γ-Butyrolactone Transformation into Dangerous γ-Hydroxybutyric Acid in Beverages by Quantitative 13C-NMR Technique

Food safety remains a matter of great concern in most countries and the composition in food is crucial to food safety. It is very important to make sense of the quality and change of food ingredients. In this research, the change of γ-butyrolactone (GBL), one kind of food additive in beverage, had been evaluated by nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) technique. The 1H-NMR results of seven beverages covering various kinds with spiked GBL indicated that GBL was transformed into dangerous γ-hydroxybutyric acid (GHB) in six popular beverages under certain conditions which could happen during transportation and storage. Further results of quantitative 13C-NMR showed that pH and temperature were two key factors affecting the transforming degree of GBL to GHB. Lower pH and higher temperature will increase the degree of transformation. GHB was a neurotransmitter on the chemical control list, which was absolutely forbidden to be added to food. This nondestructive NMR detecting technology which did not need the complex pretreatment method to directly determine food ingredients can be useful for identifying the risk of food safety from the changes of food composition during transport and storage.

Visitors' Motives for Attending a Healthy Food Exhibition

Environmental issues (i.e., food safety and environmental pollution) have increased concerns about individuals' health as well as global environment. These concerns drive awareness for the influences of healthy foods, and eventually lead them to visit healthy food exhibitions. This research aims to understand the attendees' motives for participating in a healthy food exhibition. Specific objectives are to identify crucial visitors' motives influencing satisfaction with the healthy food exhibition and to verify whether visitors' satisfaction with the exhibition enhances their memory for the experience in the exhibition. The survey was conducted by targeting visitors who participated in the Busan International Food Expo, and the data collected from 363 attendees were analyzed using the SPSS and AMOS statistical programs. The analysis results revealed that three dimensions of healthy food exhibition motives, namely perceived healthiness, perceived hedonism and perceived food safety, increase visitors' satisfaction with the healthy food exhibition, and that satisfaction with the healthy food exhibition further had a positive impact on the visitors' memory for the exhibition experience.

Food Safety Trust, Risk Perception, and Consumers' Response to Company Trust Repair Actions in Food Recall Crises

Food recalls have severe impacts on the operation, reputation, and even the survival of a recalling company involved in a crisis, with consumer trust violation being the immediate threat to the recalling firm. The involved firms adopt trust repair strategies and release messages relevant to these actions to the public. In this research, we developed a conceptual model to analyze consumers’ general responses to the food recall, and we then compared the effect of two types of consumer trust repair strategies, i.e., self-sanction and information-sharing. The results show that consumer food safety trust has negative impacts on consumers’ protective behavioral intention during a food recall crisis. In the scientific-evidence sharing group, consumers have a higher risk perception, coping appraisal efficacy, information-seeking tendency, and protection behavioral intention. However, consumers’ food safety trust fails to predict protection behavioral intention because scientific-evidence actions can either be regarded as an explanation and self-serving, or as useful facts and solutions. Self-sanction actions overcome the disadvantages of information-sharing actions, but consumers still require information on facts of and solutions to the crisis. Therefore, it is recommended that recalling firms combine these two strategies in the case of consumer trust repair in food recall crises. Furthermore, the involved firms are encouraged to employ a third party to release the scientific evidence.