Shepherd R
Department of Psychology, University of Surrey, Guildford, UK.
Proc Nutr Soc. 1999 Nov;58(4):807-12. doi: 10.1017/s0029665199001093.
Food choice is influenced by a large number of factors, including social and cultural factors. One method for trying to understand the impact of these factors is through the study of attitudes. Research is described which utilizes social psychological attitude models of attitude-behaviour relationships, in particular the Theory of Planned Behaviour. This approach has shown good prediction of behaviour, but there are a number of possible extensions to this basic model which might improve its utility. One such extension is the inclusion of measures of moral concern, which have been found to be important both for the choice of genetically-modified foods and also for foods to be eaten by others. It has been found to be difficult to effect dietary change, and there are a number of insights from social psychology which might address this difficulty. One is the phenomenon of optimistic bias, where individuals believe themselves to be at less risk from various hazards than the average person. This effect has been demonstrated for nutritional risks, and this might lead individuals to take less note of health education messages. Another concern is that individuals do not always have clear-cut attitudes, but rather can be ambivalent about food and about healthy eating. It is important, therefore, to have measures for this ambivalence, and an understanding of how it might impact on behaviour.
食物选择受大量因素影响，包括社会和文化因素。一种试图理解这些因素影响的方法是通过态度研究。本文描述了一项利用态度-行为关系的社会心理学态度模型，特别是计划行为理论的研究。这种方法已显示出对行为有良好的预测能力，但这个基本模型有一些可能的扩展方向，或许能提高其效用。其中一种扩展是纳入道德关注的衡量指标，已发现这对于转基因食品的选择以及供他人食用的食品选择都很重要。人们发现实现饮食改变很困难，社会心理学有一些见解或许能解决这一难题。其中之一是乐观偏差现象，即个体认为自己比普通人面临各种危害的风险更小。这种效应在营养风险方面已得到证实，这可能导致个体不太关注健康教育信息。另一个问题是，个体并非总是持有明确的态度，而是可能对食物和健康饮食存在矛盾心理。因此，有针对这种矛盾心理的衡量指标并了解其如何可能影响行为很重要。
