Takashi Oka

Interactive effects of carbon footprint information and its accessibility on value and subjective qualities of food products

We aimed to explore the interactive effects of the accessibility of information and the degree of carbon footprint score on consumers value judgments of food products. Participants (n=151, undergraduate students in Japan) rated their maximum willingness to pay (WTP) for four food products varying in information accessibility (active-search or read-only conditions) and in carbon footprint values (low, middle, high, or non-display) provided. We also assessed further effects of information accessibly and carbon footprint value on other product attributes utilizing the subjective estimation of taste, quality, healthiness, and environmental friendliness. Results of the experiment demonstrated an interactive effect of information accessibility and the degree of carbon emission on consumer valuation of carbon footprint-labeled food. The carbon footprint value had a stronger impact on participants WTP in the active-search condition than in the read-only condition. Similar to WTP, the results of the subjective ratings for product qualities also exhibited an interactive effect of the two factors on the rating of environmental friendliness for products. These results imply that the perceived environmental friendliness inferable from a carbon footprint label contributes to creating value for a food product.

Indecisiveness and Culture: Incidence, Values, and Thoroughness

Three studies examined cultural variations in indecisiveness among Chinese, Japanese, and Americans. In Study 1, validated self-report, comprehensive measures of indecisiveness indicated large cultural differences, with Japanese participants exhibiting substantially more indecisiveness than Chinese or Americans. Study 2 provided evidence that such cultural variations correspond to variations in people’s positive versus negative values for decisive behaviors, suggesting that such values are plausibly an important means for motivating and sustaining cultural differences in indecisiveness. Study 3 provided direct behavioral instances of the differences in indecisiveness implicated in Studies 1 and 2. It also suggested that thoroughness might be an important cognitive mechanism whereby cultural differences in indecision actually occur, with thoroughness being especially prominent among Japanese decision makers. Suggestions for theory concerning the nature and foundations of indecisiveness and its cultural variations are developed and discussed, along with plausible implications for real-life practical issues, for example, in politics and management.

Implicit gender-based food stereotypes. Semantic priming experiments on young Japanese.

We explored the feasibility of introducing implicit attitude measures for the study of food-related stereotypes by assessing gender-based food stereotypes among young Japanese using a semantic priming paradigm. Thirty-seven Japanese university students were asked to judge if a given forename was male or female immediately after the presentation of a food-name prime stimulus. The participants required significantly less time to verify the gender of forenames when the stereotyped gender of the food and the gender of forename were congruent than when they were incongruent. We demonstrate that a semantic priming paradigm is capable of uncovering implicit gender-based food stereotypes.

Linguistic intergroup bias in Japan

This study examined linguistic intergroup bias in Japan. Linguistic intergroup bias is the tendency to describe positive in-group and negative out-group behaviors more abstractly than negative in-group and positive out-group behaviors. Participants were 26 Japanese high school students. Fans of the participants favorite professional baseball team were employed as in-groups and those of their least-favorite professional baseball team as out-groups. The students described the negative behaviors of out-groups more abstractly than the negative behaviors of in-groups, but there was no intergroup bias with regard to positive behaviors. It is suggested that linguistic intergroup bias contributes to the formation and maintenance of negative out-group stereotypes in Japan.

Dish influences implicit gender-based food stereotypes among young Japanese adults☆

The present study explored whether the gender impression of a dish affects the gender stereotypes of foods. We assessed gender stereotypes of food among young Japanese adults using a semantic priming task. As prime stimuli, we took pictures of food in combination with a dish. We used feminine- and masculine-evaluated foods and dishes in order to create four different combinations of food and dishes. In the semantic priming task, we primed the participants (n=58) with the pictures of food-dish combinations and immediately after the priming, we presented them with forenames as target stimuli and let them decide whether the forename given was feminine or masculine. By so doing, we estimated the semantic association between the food-dish combinations with gender. The results demonstrate that gender impressions of dishes affect gender stereotypes toward foods. The feminine-evaluated dish exhibited a facilitation of the femininity and an inhibition of the masculinity of foods. Similarly, the masculine-evaluated dish exhibited a facilitation of the masculinity and an inhibition of the femininity of foods. These results suggest that gender-based stereotypical attitudes toward food pictures are determined by the combination of gender impressions for both the food itself and its dish.

Clerk agent promotes consumers' ethical purchasing behavior in unmanned purchase environment

This study explored whether cues from others in a purchase environment have an effect on purchase behavior for products with fair-trade labels, an ethical attribute of products, among Japanese consumers. By manipulating cues from others, we assessed consumers intentions to purchase fair-trade products under three different experimental situations: 1) the observed condition, in which participants purchasing behaviors were observed by others (N = 84), 2) the agent condition, in which participants purchasing behaviors were observed by a clerk-like agent (N = 118), and 3) the non-observed condition, in which participants purchasing behaviors could not be observed by others (N = 106). The results of this conjoint experiment demonstrate that participants under both the agent and observed conditions valuated fair-trade products higher than those under the non-observed condition, although participants both in the agent and the non-observed conditions were instructed that their responses would remain anonymous. These findings imply that implications of the presence of others, such as a clerk-like agent in an unmanned purchase environment, enhance ethical purchasing behaviors as with manned purchase environments.

Clerk agent promotes consumers' ethical purchase intention in unmanned purchase environment

This study examined the effect of the presence of an artificial individual in a purchase environment on purchase intention for products with fair-trade labels among Japanese consumers. By manipulating the presence of an artificial individual, we assessed consumers intentions to purchase fair-trade products under two different experimental unmanned purchase environments: the agent condition, in which task instructions were given by a female clerk-like computer graphic agent throughout the task (N=118), and the control condition in which task instructions were given through a text box (N=106). Results demonstrated that participants under the agent condition valuated fair trade higher than those under the control condition, although participants in both the agent and the control conditions were instructed that their responses would remain anonymous. These findings suggest that the implication of the presence of an artificial individual, such as a clerk-like agent in an unmanned purchase environment, enhances the ethicality of purchase intentions as with manned purchase environments.