Moralities in food and health research

Abstract

Society has imposed strict rules about what constitutes a ‘good’ or a ‘bad’ food and ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ eating behaviour at least since antiquity. Today, the moral discourse of what we should and should not eat is perhaps stronger than ever, and it informs consumers, researchers and policy-makers about what we all should consume, research and regulate. We propose four types of moralities, underlying sets of moral assumptions, that orient the contemporary discourses of food and health: the ‘good’ and ‘bad’ nature of food items, the virtue of self-control and moderation, the management of body size and the actions of market agents. We demonstrate how these moralities influence consumer behaviour as well as transformative research of food and health and develop a critical discussion of the impact of the underlying morality in each domain. We conclude by providing a few guidelines for changes in research questions, designs and methodologies for future research and call for a general reflection on the consequences of the uncovered moralities in research on food and health towards an inclusive view of food well-being.

Keywords:

• food
• health
• morality
• governmentality
• life quality

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Søren Askegaard

The order of the two lead authors is alphabetical, both contributed equally to the paper. The remaining authors (also in alphabetical order) provided basic input for the four subsections in the body of the manuscript.

Søren Askegaard is a Professor of Marketing at the University of Southern Denmark. He is the initiator and director of the university’s programme in Market and Management Anthropology (MMA) and an Associate Editor at the Journal of Consumer Research. Søren is part of the CCT research tradition. His current research projects include globalism and localisms in consumer culture: food culture, the ideology of health and morality of the body; and marketplace seduction. Søren’s work has appeared in, among others, the Journal of Consumer Research, Marketing Theory, Journal of Consumer Culture, International Business Review, Psychology and Marketing, and Consumption Markets and Culture.

Nailya Ordabayeva

Nailya Ordabayeva is an Assistant Professor of Marketing at Boston College. She received her PhD at INSEAD in Fontainebleau, France. Nailya’s research examines how consumers perceive food packages and portions and how these perceptions influence consumption decisions. She is also interested in the effects of wealth distributions on conspicuous and inconspicuous consumption. Nailya’s research has been published in, among others, the Journal of Marketing, the Journal of Marketing Research, the Journal of Consumer Research, and the Journal of Consumer Psychology. Her findings have received coverage at media outlets such as The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Economist, and USA Today.

Pierre Chandon

Pierre Chandon is the L’Oréal Chaired Professor of Marketing, Innovation and Creativity and the Director of the INSEAD Social Science Research Centre. His primary research interests focus on the effects of marketing (in particular, packaging and nutrition claims) on food choices. He has published in marketing journals, such as Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Marketing Research, Journal of Marketing, Foundations and Trends in Marketing, and also in nutrition and medical journals, such as Obesity, Nutrition Reviews, and Annals of Internal Medicine. Pierre received the 2012 O’Dell award for his 2007 Journal of Marketing Research article on calorie underestimation and the 2010 JCR award for his 2007 Journal of Consumer Research article on health halos. His 2009 Journal of Marketing article on in-store attention and evaluation as well his 2005 Journal of Marketing article on self-generated validity were both finalists for the Marketing Science Institute/H. Paul Root Award.

Tracy Cheung

Tracy Cheung is a PhD Candidate in Behavioural Sciences at the Self-Regulation Lab, Utrecht University. Tracy joined the Self-Regulation Lab at Utrecht University in September 2012 after obtaining her undergraduate BA (Honours) in Psychology at Queen’s University, Canada, and a Master’s degree in Educational Psychology at the University of Bristol, UK. Tracy’s research focuses on self-control and healthy food consumption choices. Her research is part of the EU Marie Curie Research Fellowship Consumer Competence Training (CONCORT) network.

Zuzana Chytkova

Zuzana Chytkova is an Assistant Professor of Marketing at the University of Economics, Prague, which she joined in 2010. She completed her PhD dissertation entitled ‘Immigration, gender and consumer acculturation: A journey into the meaningful world of food consumption practices of Romanian women in Italy’ at the University of Pisa. Zuzana’s research interests include consumption related issues in relation to immigration, gender and health. She has published her work in peer-reviewed national and international journals and is currently planning to found the first Social Marketing Center in the Czech Republic as a way to obtain funding for research on social issues and to drive social change.

Yann Cornil

Yann Cornil is a PhD Candidate in Marketing at INSEAD. Yann’s primary research area is consumers’ eating behaviour, which he studies from different angles: visual perception, affective forecasting, identity, emotions, as well as biological factors. He has published in Psychological Science and Journal of Consumer Psychology. Yann is currently involved in a multi-disciplinary project on the environmental and biological drivers of obesity, with marketing researchers from INSEAD and medical researchers from La Pitié Salpétrière. Before starting his PhD, Yann graduated with a Master’s degree in Management from HEC Paris and worked as a financial marketing analyst at BNP Paribas.

Canan Corus

Canan Corus is an Assistant Professor of Marketing at Pace University. She received her Ph.D. in marketing from the Pamplin School of Business at Virginia Tech in 2008. She also holds an MBA from SUNY at Binghamton and a BS in food processing engineering from METU in Ankara, Turkey. Prior to starting her academic career, Canan worked in the marketing division of the KOC Group in Turkey as an international marketing executive. Canan’s research focuses on consumer health, consumer welfare and vulnerable populations. Her studies have explored customisation and consumers’ reception of health messages, consumer literacy, corporate social responsibility and stakeholder engagement. She has published in academic journals such as the Journal of Business Research, the Journal of Marketing Research, the Journal of Applied Social Psychology, the Journal of Consumer Affairs and the Journal of Public Policy & Marketing.

Julie A. Edell

Julie A. Edell is an Associate Professor of Marketing at the Fuqua School of Business, which she joined in 1980 after receiving her MS and PhD in marketing from Carnegie-Mellon University and her BA in mathematics from The University of Nebraska-Omaha. Julie’s primary research areas are advertising and consumer emotions. She has examined a number of issues surrounding the question, ‘What makes for an effective marketing communication?’ Her research examines the emotions that are elicited by the communication and the impact of these emotions on the beliefs, attitudes and behavioural intentions. Julie’s publications include the book, Emotion in Advertising: Theoretical and Practical Explorations, and numerous papers in leading academic journals and books including the Journal of Consumer Psychology, the Journal of Consumer Research, and the Journal of Marketing Research.

Daniele Mathras

Daniele Mathras is a PhD Candidate in Marketing at the W.P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University. She earned a BS in Business Administration from Babson College in 2003 with a concentration in Marketing and an MBA from the University of Massachusetts in 2009 with a concentration in Marketing and Sustainability. Prior to joining ASU’s doctoral program, Daniele was a marketing and public relations professional in the entertainment, natural foods, and culinary industries. She has been a member of Slow Foods USA and Community Involved in Sustaining Agriculture, and an associate at Seed to Shelf: Marketing for Sustainability. Her research falls into TCR, with current projects on the influence of confessions and policy reactance on identity-driven self-regulation and consumption decisions, and the influence of stress and vulnerability on consumer and provider well-being outcomes.

Astrid Franziska Junghans

Astrid Franziska Junghans is a PhD Candidate in Behavioural Sciences at the Self-Regulation Lab, Utrecht University, which she joined in September 2012. In 2009, Astrid received her BA in Integrated Social and Cognitive Psychology from Jacobs University Bremen followed by her MSc in Social and Cultural Psychology from the London School of Economics in 2010. Astrid’s research focuses on consumers’ eating behaviours and decision-making in today’s obesogenic environment. She is specifically interested in the influence of food environment manipulations such as food accessibility. This research is sponsored by the EU FP7 Marie Curie Initial Training Network CONCORT (Consumer Competence Research Training).

Dorthe Brogaard Kristensen

Dorthe Brogaard Kristensen is an Assistant Professor of Marketing at the University of Southern Denmark in Odense, Denmark. Her research focuses on consumers’ perceptions and practices in the sphere of health and food. She currently explores how consumers in different countries (starting from Denmark and the Czech Republic) deploy consumption in different forms of governmentality.

Ilona Mikkonen

Ilona Mikkonen is a University Lecturer and Researcher (tenured) at the Marketing faculty of the Aalto University School of Business in Finland. Her research focuses on consumer culture theory, consumer identity, well-being and the influence of exercise.

Elizabeth G. Miller

Elizabeth G. Miller is an Associate Professor of Marketing at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Her research explores how emotions, especially stress, influence how consumers process information as well as how the way information is presented changes whether consumers use it. Frequently, she studies these issues within the context of consumers’ health-related decisions, examining such questions as what factors influence children’s food choices, how to present risk information and how to reduce stress during negative service events. Her research has been published in the Journal of Consumer Research, the Journal of Service Research, the Journal of Public Policy & Marketing, and the Journal of Consumer Behaviour, among other outlets.

Nada Sayarh

Nada Sayarh is a PhD Candidate in Marketing at University of Geneva, which she joined in 2008. She is a holder of an MBA from Binghamton University – SUNY (NY, USA) and a BBA from Al Akhawayn University (Morocco). She has previously worked as a Brand Manager in Procter and Gamble and Colgate Palmolive in Morocco. Afterwards, she has joined academia and taught Marketing and Communication related courses at the University of Geneva as well as Webster University in Switzerland. Nada’s research focuses on stigma and virtual consumption communities.

Carolina Werle

Carolina Werle is an Assistant Professor of Marketing at Grenoble Ecole de Management in Grenoble, France. Her research deals with social marketing issues and she is interested in external cues influencing food consumption, self-control issues, the efficacy of prevention campaigns and the relationship between physical activity and food consumption. Her research has been published in outlets such as Archives of Pediatric & Adolescent Medicine, Marketing Letters, Appetite, Food Quality & Preference, and Recherches et Applications en Marketing.