Dispelling Myths about a New Healthful Food can be More Motivating than Promoting Nutritional Benefits: The Case of Tofu Brian Wansink, Mitsuru Shimizu, Adam Brumberg PII: DOI: Reference:

S1471-0153(14)00042-7 doi: 10.1016/j.eatbeh.2014.03.016 EATBEH 787

To appear in:

Eating Behaviors

Received date: Accepted date:

25 July 2013 25 March 2014

Please cite this article as: Wansink, B., Shimizu, M. & Brumberg, A., Dispelling Myths about a New Healthful Food can be More Motivating than Promoting Nutritional Benefits: The Case of Tofu, Eating Behaviors (2014), doi: 10.1016/j.eatbeh.2014.03.016

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Brian Wansinka, Ph.D Mitsuru Shimizub, Ph.D Adam Brumbergc

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Dispelling Myths about a New Healthful Food can be More Motivating than Promoting Nutritional Benefits: The Case of Tofu

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Word Count: 1127

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Running Title: Dispelling Myths about a New Healthful Food

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Brian Wansink is the John S. Dyson Professor of Marketing in the Charles H. Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management at Cornell University, 15 Warren Hall, Ithaca, NY 14853-7801; [email protected]. bMitsuru Shimizu is a post-doctoral fellow in the Charles H. Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management at Cornell University, 14 Warren Hall, Ithaca, NY 14853-7801; [email protected]. cAdam Brumberg is the Deputy Director of the Cornell Food and Brand Lab, 35 Warren Hall, Ithaca, NY 14853-7801; [email protected]. Adam Brumberg is the Corresponding Author. The authors do not have any conflicts of interest regarding the research contained herein.

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ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT Dispelling Myths about a New Healthful Food can be More Motivating than Promoting Nutritional Benefits: The Case of Tofu

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Abstract

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Objective: This study examines what factors impact the adoption of certain types of healthy foods, such as Tofu, by future nutritional gatekeepers.

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Design: Information on perceived facilitators and barriers to the utilization of barriers would be obtained via interviews and surveys.

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Setting: In-depth laddering interviews and an online survey during 2012 were utilized.

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Subjects: The in-depth laddering interviews were conducted with 83 young women and new mothers (non-vegetarians and non-Asians) who were enthusiastic lovers of tofu. 502 women from the target demographic (between 20 and 35, non-Asian) were recruited from a national panel and surveyed online in 2012.

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Results: Based on the interviews, 21 primary reasons for trying Tofu (facilitators) and 10 reasons that might be preventative (barriers) were identified. A key finding was that facilitators were not motivating factors for why women adopted tofu into their diets. Instead, barriers explained more than 44% of the variance for not adopting tofu.

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Conclusions: When encouraging nutritional gatekeepers to adopt Tofu in their home, it may be more effective to focus on changing the barriers. This study suggests that nutritionists and health practitioners may be more successful in encouraging the adoption of healthy new foods by dispelling their misconceptions rather than focusing on their nutritional benefits.

Key Words: New food; Health food; Tofu; Nutritional benefits; Food acceptance

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ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT 1. Introduction The continuing increase in obesity in the population is a major health concern for

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the United States. Current research shows that it is crucial to increase healthful eating in

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addition to reducing total caloric intake in order to tackle the obesity epidemic (Haslam & James, 2005; Rippe, 1998). In fact, much obesity research is shifting toward the quality

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rather than the quantity of food intake (French et al., 2001; Liu et al., 2003). Thus,

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increasing the intake of soy foods, such as Tofu, is considered as an important approach. However, although soy foods are generally considered as healthful, Tofu is not familiar to

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or used by the majority of Americans (Ito-Peterson, 2000). In addition, the majority of people think of Tofu as having an unpleasing taste (Wansink & Chan, 2001).

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Given that up to 72% of what a family eats is controlled by the nutritional

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gatekeeper – the person who purchases and prepares most of the food in the household

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(Wansink, 2006) – the present study examines what factors help to determine whether these individuals will adopt an unfamiliar healthful new food into their family’s diet. Of prime interest are new or expectant mothers, because many of these individuals will be nutritional gatekeepers and many are still flexible in their cooking patterns (Wansink, 2003a). Thus, using tofu as an example, this study investigates what facilitators (e.g., nutritional values of Tofu) and barriers (e.g., difficulty in cooking Tofu) among young women and new mothers in their 20s and 30s help or hinder them to adopt healthy foods. 2. Material and Methods In-depth laddering interviews (Wansink, 2003b) were conducted with 83 young women and new mothers (non-vegetarians and non-Asians) who were enthusiastic lovers of tofu. The interviews were designed to discover what key drivers or events led the

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ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT interviewees to seek out and try new foods and tofu in particular. We also explored what factors had to be overcome before the initial first usage. Based on the interviews, 21

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primary reasons for trying a new food like Tofu (facilitators) and 10 reasons that might be

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preventative (barriers) were identified.

As a sub-set of a larger survey on new food adoptions, these facilitators (e.g.

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“How important it is that a new food is high protein”) and barriers (e.g., “I don’t know

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how to prepare Tofu”) were tested. Facilitators were measured using a 9-point scale ranging from 1 (not very important) to 9 (very important). Barriers were measured by 10

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items such as using a 9-point scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 9 (strongly agree). 502 women from the target demographic (between 20 and 35 years old, non-

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Asian, non-vegetarian/vegan with some college education) were recruited from a national panel maintained by the MSR Group (Omaha, NE) and surveyed online in 2012. In

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addition to completing a measure of facilitators and barriers, those participants reported whether they ever ate Tofu or not (dummy-coded: 1=yes, 0=no), along with their height and weight in order to estimate BMI. Two exploratory principal components analyses (PCA) were first performed to consider possible factor structures for facilitators and barriers. After identifying items contributing to facilitators or barriers, simultaneous logistic regression analyses were performed if those items were significantly associated with the usage of Tofu. All analyses were performed by SPSS in 2013. This study was exempted by the Cornell Institutional Review Board. 3. Results An exploratory PCA revealed that 4 factors with eigenvalues greater than 1

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ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT explained 61.3% of the total variance. Because the first factor consisted of 14 items and accounted for 39.3% of explained variance, those items were considered as facilitators.

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Similarly, an exploratory PCA revealed that 2 factors with eigenvalues greater than 1

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explained 57.4% of the total variance. Because the first factor consisted of 8 items and accounted for 44.2% of explained variance, those items were considered as barriers.

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Two simultaneous logistic regression analyses were performed to examine

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whether those 14 facilitators and 8 barriers would predict the use of Tofu among participants. In those analyses, participants’ BMI was included because it might influence

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healthy eating. However, the results were virtually the same with and without those covariates. The first analysis revealed that the use of Tofu was significantly predicted by

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four facilitators (see Table 1)—specifically, the odds ratio of 1.18 for “Tofu is high

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protein,” indicating that for each unit increase in this item, participants were 18.2% more

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likely to be a Tofu user. Similarly, for each unit increase in “Tofu is not made from genetically modified crops,” participants were 14.3% more likely to be a Tofu user. However, for each unit increase in “Tofu doesn’t spoil easily” and “Tofu is nicely packaged,” participants were 13.5% and 13.9% less likely to be a Tofu user, respectively. However, those 14 items including four significant items explained only 12% (Nagelkerke R2) of the variance in this model. The second analysis revealed that the use of Tofu was significantly predicted by four barriers (see Table 2)—specifically, the odds ratio of .69 for “Tofu doesn’t taste good,” indicating that for each unit increase in this item, participants were 31.5% less likely to be a Tofu user. Similarly, for each unit increase in “I don’t know how to prepare Tofu,” and “I think Tofu is expensive,” participants were 16.9% and 12.3% less likely to

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ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT be a Tofu user, respectively. Interestingly, for each unit increase in “You have to be a good cook to make Tofu,” participants were 13.4% more likely to be a Tofu user.

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Importantly, those 8 items including four significant items explained 44% (Nagelkerke

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R2) of the variance in this model. 4. Discussion & Conclusions

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A key finding was that facilitators were not motivating factors for why women

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adopted tofu into their diets. Overall variance explained by those facilitators is less than 12%, and only two of them (i.e., “Tofu is high protein” and “Tofu is not made from

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genetically modified crops”) significantly predicted if participants were Tofu users. In addition, other facilitators (i.e., “Tofu doesn’t spoil easily” and “Tofu is nicely

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packaged”) were actually negatively associated with the Tofu usage, suggesting that people considered that Tofu spoils easily and is not nicely packaged.

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In contrast, barriers (e.g., “Tofu doesn’t taste good”) explained more than 44% of the variance for not adopting tofu. Thus, when encouraging nutritional gatekeepers to adopt Tofu in their home, it may be more effective to focus on addressing the barriers as opposed to promoting the facilitators. For instance, instructing new users on how to prepare Tofu was more persuasive than addressing the nutritional value of Tofu. Furthermore, Tofu was more likely to be adopted when participants knew that most of the barriers were not accurate. Therefore, correcting the perceptions that Tofu is expensive, difficult to prepare, or easily spoiled should be an effective method for increasing tofu usage. This study suggests the solutions for nutritionists and health practitioners to encourage nutritional gatekeepers to adopt healthier cooking habits that may lie on dispelling their misconceptions regarding more healthful foods.

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ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT References French, S.A., Story, M,. Neumark-Sztainer, D., Fulkerson, J.A., & Hannan, P. (2001).

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Fast food restaurant use among adolescents: associations with nutrient intake, food choices and behavioral and psychosocial variables. Inter J Obesity, 25, 1823-

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Haslam, D.W., & James, W.P. (1998). Obesity. Lancet, 366, 1197-209.

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Ito-Peterson, Y. (2000). House Foods betting on spiced-up tofu. Orange County Business Journal, 23, 1

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Liu, S., Willett, W., Manson, J., Hu, F., Rosner, B., Colditz, G. (2003). Relation between changes in intakes of dietary fiber and grain products and changes in weight and

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development of obesity among middle-aged women. Ame J Clin Nutr, 78, 920-7. Rippe J. (1998). The obesity epidemic: challenges and opportunities. J Am Diet Assoc, 98, S5.

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Wansink, B. (2006). Nutritional gatekeepers and the 72% solution. J Ame Diet Asso, 106,

Wansink, B., & Chan, N. (2001). Relation of soy consumption to nutritional knowledge.

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J Med Food, 4, 147-52.

Wansink, B. (2003a) Profiling nutritional gatekeepers: Three methods for differentiating influencial cooks. Food Qual Prefer, 14, 289-97. Wansink, B. (2003b) Using laddering to understand and leverage a brand’s equity. Qual Market Res Int J, 2, 111-8.

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ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT TABLE 1

PT .86**

.77-.96

6.99

.87**

.78-.96

6.82

1.14**

1.03-1.26

2.98

.89

.78-1.02

.11

3.70

1.12

1.00-1.24

.06

.74

1.07

.92-1.23

-.06

.90

.95

.84-1.06

-.04

.56

.96

.86-1.07

-.04

.41

.96

.84-1.09

Is low fat/calorie

.03

.23

1.03

.90-1.19

Is environmentally friendly

.03

.19

1.03

.91-1.15

Sets a good example for others

.02

.10

1.02

.91-1.14

Doesn’t spoil appetite

.002

.002

1.00

.90-1.11

Is high protein

.17

5.49

Is nicely packaged

-.15

7.27

Doesn’t spoil easy

-.15

Is not made from genetically modified crops

.13

Helps to stay slim and pretty

-.12

Is exotic

Is seen as progressive

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Is low in cholesterol

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Is a good for modern living

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Is high in fiber

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95% CI

1.18*

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Wald Test

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B

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1.03-1.36

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How Important is it that a New Food Have the Following Characteristics? (R2=.12)

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Dispelling myths about a new healthful food can be more motivating than promoting nutritional benefits: the case of Tofu.

This study examines what factors impact the adoption of certain types of healthy foods, such as Tofu, by future nutritional gatekeepers...
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