Conference Agenda

Seafood, as the product with high nutritional value and low carbon footprint, has attracted extensive discussion for achieving sustainable food consumption. However, whether message framing could play a role in promoting seafood consumption is still unclear. Using a payment card experiment combined with eye-tracking technology, this study examines whether and how message framing affects consumer preferences and willingness to pay (WTP) for Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC) and organic labelled shrimp. We also shed light on the underlying physiological mechanisms by detecting consumer’s visual attention to different message framing with consideration of positive and negative message framing. The results show that positive framing significantly increases consumers’ preferences and WTPs for ASC and organic labelled seafood, compared to negative framing. Evidence from eye-tracking data indicates that visual attention, such as total fixation duration and average fixation duration, is positively related to consumers’ preferences and WTPs, with notable differences between the framing types. This study provides significant evidence for promoting sustainable food consumption from designing of the message framing.

Front-of-package nutrition labels (FOPNLs) have been widely discussed for their potential to promote healthier food choices, yet the cognitive mechanisms behind their effectiveness remain poorly understood despite the central role of cognitive cost in decision-making. Based on an online shopping experiment and a laboratory eye-tracking experiment, this study conducts three studies to examine the effect of the Traffic-Light nutrition label on health-oriented food choices. The results show that the Traffic-Light nutrition label significantly promotes healthier choices, increasing the likelihood of consumers selecting healthier products. Eye-tracking data from a laboratory experiment reveal that the Traffic-Light nutrition label reduces cognitive costs by decreasing both fixation time and the number of fixations. The results of the moderation analysis show that the effect of the nutrition label is amplified in the high dietary knowledge group compared to the low dietary knowledge group, suggesting that consumers with higher dietary knowledge are better able to utilize the Traffic-Light label by actively seeking and processing nutritional information. These findings highlight the effectiveness of the TL label in promoting healthier food choices and underscore the importance of dietary knowledge in maximizing label utility.

Consumer acceptance of novel foods is often constrained by unfamiliar sensory profiles despite well-documented health benefits. This study proposes and empirically explores a sensory-attention pathway, where individual sensory evaluations may moderate preferences for novel food products, while visual attention to product information plays a complementary role in shaping post-sensory choices. Using a two-stage choice experiment with quinoa-enriched bread in Egypt (N = 99), we integrate respondent-level sensory ratings and eye-tracking metrics into a series of mixed logit and latent class logit models estimated across a large specification space. The results show that continuous sensory evaluations, particularly taste and smell ratings, are strong moderators of quinoa bread acceptance. Moreover, a systematic comparison indicates that sensory evaluations happen primarily through the utility function rather than through consumer segmentation, explaining how much an individual values quinoa bread rather than sorting consumers into discrete preference types. Notably, sensory ratings exhibit asymmetric detection thresholds across sensory dimensions and quinoa substitution levels. Eye-tracking measures show directionally consistent but modest associations with preferences, suggesting that attention to nutritional information may complement sensory experience in shaping choices. Rather than establishing definitive causal effects, the study demonstrates how combining process-tracing data with discrete choice models can provide deeper insights into post-sensory decision mechanisms.

This study develops and applies a biometric-augmented econometric choice model to examine the behavioural mechanisms underlying organic food decisions. A controlled laboratory experiment combining a discrete choice experiment with synchronized eye-tracking and galvanic skin response (GSR) measurements was conducted on a sample of 40 respondents. The integrated dataset enables the estimation of the relative contribution of product attributes, visual attention, and physiological arousal in explaining observed choice behaviour. The econometric results show that physiological arousal has a positive and statistically significant effect on product selection, increasing the probability of choice by approximately 20%. In contrast, visual attention does not retain statistical significance once physiological arousal is included in the model. These findings indicate that visual attention represents an intermediate stage in the decision process, while physiological arousal acts as the key mechanism linking observed product information with final choice. The study contributes to improving the behavioural realism of econometric choice models by integrating physiological process variables into food choice analysis.

Geographical indication (GI) labels represent institutional tools that enhance the competitiveness and sustainability of agri-food products by linking them to specific geographical origin and production traditions. Their effectiveness depends on consumer perception, particularly trust and willingness to pay (WTP). This study examines behavioural relationships between recognition of GI labels, trust in GI certification, and WTP for GI-labelled agri-food products using survey data from 100 consumers in Serbia. Correlation analysis was applied to test relationships between recognition, trust, WTP, purchase frequency, and perceived producer benefits. The results show statistically significant positive associations between recognition and trust, as well as between trust and WTP. Trust is also strongly associated with purchase frequency, while perceived producer benefits are positively related to national identity. These findings indicate that trust represents the central behavioural mechanism linking GI labels and consumer economic behaviour.