Food purchasing decisions and environmental ideology: an exploratory survey of UK shoppers

BARKER, Margo, WONG, Francis, JONES, Christopher R and RUSSELL, Jean M (2019). Food purchasing decisions and environmental ideology: an exploratory survey of UK shoppers. Sustainability, 11 (22), p. 6279.

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Abstract

Environmentally and ethically conscious food purchasing has traction with British consumers. We examined how broad environmental worldviews related to shoppers’ ratings of the importance of various shopping criteria, including recognition of eco-labels, by surveying 502 shoppers from the city of Sheffield, England. Environmental worldviews were measured using the New Ecological Paradigm (NEP) scale. Responses to the scale split into two dimensions reflecting the scale’s origins: the Dominant Social Paradigm (DSP) and NEP subscales. Subscription to the NEP (ecocentric values) was associated with greater importance ratings of nutrition & health, animal welfare, the environment, Fairtrade, seasonal, local and organic criteria. Subscription to the DSP (anthropocentric values) was associated with greater importance ratings of quality, taste, safety, price and convenience criteria. Notably, subscription to DSP values was the only predictor of eco-label recognition score in a multivariate model. These results indicate that the NEP scale should be considered as two subscales. The results suggest that campaigns to increase consumers’ environmental awareness in order to encourage environmentally driven food shopping are likely to motivate only consumers disenchanted with technological and anthropocentric development.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	12 Built Environment and Design
Identification Number:	https://doi.org/10.3390/su11226279
Page Range:	p. 6279
SWORD Depositor:	Symplectic Elements
Depositing User:	Symplectic Elements
Date Deposited:	11 Nov 2019 12:55
Last Modified:	18 Mar 2021 03:20
URI:	https://shura.shu.ac.uk/id/eprint/25433

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