IPB Workshop – Context effects on consumer judgments

Professional seminars of the Institut Paul Bocuse Research Centre

 

WORKSHOP

CONTEXT EFFECTS ON CONSUMER JUDGMENTS

Herb Meiselman & Agnes Giboreau

Ecully (Lyon), June 6, 2014 – Institut Paul Bocuse Research Center

The professional seminars of the Research Center are an opportunity to connect the industrial and academic worlds by providing professionals with practical, up-to-date knowledge of the most innovative scientific approach and methods.

The objective of this one-day workshop is to share published knowledge on context effects and to address methodological key-points to be questioned in current practices. The day combines plenary talks presenting synthesis of scientific papers, case studies exercises and practical demonstrations. This workshop is held in the ideal place to address context: the Institut Paul Bocuse as the Institute promotes consideration of the whole eating environment and provides different settings in which to study the whole eating environment.

Context

Eating context has a major influence on food appreciation, a as reported for various situations (Meiselman 1992, Cardello et al. 1996, Hartwell et al. 2007, Meiselman 2007, Giboreau 2012). The impact of the environment in non-laboratory settings, with its methodological and theoretical basis, is an interesting scientific challenge and an important practical challenge for those evaluating foods. The location has a significant influence on both the appreciation of a particular food as well as on overall acceptability of a meal (Edwards et al. 2003, Edwards & Gustafsson 2008). In a restaurant, music, décor, lighting level, the presence of other foods and other people can have an impact on food choices and food perception (Meiselman 2006, Stroebele et al. 2004, 2006, Woods et al. 2010, Jacquier et al. 2012).

Closer to the food itself, the way the food or drink is presented is also of great importance (Hurling et al. 2003; Zellner et al. 2012, Piqueras-Fiszman et al. 2012). Tableware and dishes not only contribute to create expectations of food liking (Zellner 2007, Spence et al. 2012) but also modulate food intake through serving size based on expected satiety (Brunstrom 2011, Marchiori et al. 2012; van Kleef et al. 2012).

On the social level, Edwards et al. (2005) studied verbal social influence in a natural eating environment. More specifically on the role of language, Hugol-Gential (2012) described how service in a restaurant contributes to the reassurance of the customers facing a new or unknown food.

Thus, general models of food perception attempt to take all interactions into account from the physical surrounding of the food to its presentation and the social environment (e.g. Mojet 2001, Edwards et al. 2006). However, integrating this knowledge in innovation or evaluation processes is not easy and requires using new or complementary methods. Sharing knowledge and discussing methods related to the topic of context is thus the aim of this workshop.

Deadline for registration: May 21st, 2014 [the number of participants is limited]

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