The psychological process in the safety evaluation of fresh vegetables: Memories that threatened the safety function as the availability heuristic
2009
Takenishi, A., Hyogo Univ. of Teacher Education, Yashiro (Japan) | Takahashi, K.
This article aims at understanding the psychological process in the safety evaluation of food, focusing on the influence of related incidents on the evaluation. For this purpose, we develop a psychological model of safety-treatment evaluation, in which the compliance in the food chain and groundless-safety feeling in people influence the evaluation of safety-treatment of fresh vegetables. In the model, we hypothesize that the memories of incidents that threatened the food safety function as the availability heuristic in assuming the compliance in food chain, and in assessing the groundless-safety feeling. People's need for cognition was also examined as an independent variable to affect the assumption of compliance and the groundless-safety feeling. Using the questionnaire data of a sample of 1,022 people, the SEM (structural equation modeling) with latent variables revealed that our model was valid and that the memories functioned as heuristic. The memories of incidents, especially the violation of rules, declined the evaluation of the safety-treatment by way of the deterioration in the assumed compliance in all subgroups: farmers, processors, and consumers. The groundless-safety feeling was declined by the need for cognition in consumers and processors. The need for cognition declined the assumption of compliance in the consumers and enhanced it in the processors. We interpreted these results through an interactional perspective in the food chain and proposed a framework for food policy, called the 'Safety Spirals Model'.
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