What counts as healthy eating varies both within and across cultures. While people often focus on specific foods and nutrients, the timing and style of eating (eating context) can also be an important consideration, and one that appears to vary across cultures. One possible explanation for this variation is differences in basic cognition, with holistic thinking in collectivist cultures favouring contextual factors. We assess this hypothesis by examining perceptions between two cultural groups that vary in collectivism. In study 1, we investigate whether residents of Ukraine place more importance on considerations of eating context than residents of the usa. In study 2, we test whether this between-country difference is due to the mediating effect of individual differences in collectivism. Ukrainian participants consistently placed more importance on context (Cohen’s d = 0.71–0.84; p < 0.01) and were more collectivist (Cohen’s d = 0.95, p < 0.001). A mediation analysis shows that collectivism significantly mediates the effect of nationality on context endorsement, and renders the effect of nationality non-significant (p > 0.05). These results suggest that the holistic pattern of attention might extend to the domain of nutrition and may account for some cross-cultural differences in perceptions of healthy eating. We briefly discuss the benefits of perception focused on the context of eating, such as decreased burden of self-regulation in a food-rich environment.
Purchase
Buy instant access (PDF download and unlimited online access):
Institutional Login
Log in with Open Athens, Shibboleth, or your institutional credentials
Personal login
Log in with your brill.com account
Akamatsu R. , Maeda Y. , Hagihara A. & Shirakawa T. Interpretations and attitudes toward healthy eating among Japanese workers Appetite 2005 44 123 129
Buhrmester M. , Kwang T. & Gosling S.D. Amazon’s Mechanical Turk: A new source of inexpensive, yet high-quality, data? Perspectives on Psychological Science 2011 6 3 5
Croll J.K. , Neumark-Sztainer D. & Story M. Healthy eating: what does it mean to adolescents? Journal of Nutrition Education 2001 33 193 198
De Ridder D. , De Vet E. , Stok M. , Adriaanse M. & De Wit J. Obesity, overconsumption and self-regulation failure: The unsung role of eating appropriateness standards Health Psychology Review 2013 7 146 165
Fisher R.J. & Dubé L. Development and validation of an eating norms inventory. Americans’ lay-beliefs about appropriate eating Appetite 2011 57 365 376
Grossmann I. Cognitive differences between Russians and Americans Unpublished data 2008 Ann Arbor, MI University of Michigan
Hayes A.F. Introduction to mediation, moderation, and conditional process analysis: A regression-based approach 2013 New York, NY Guilford Press
Kolman L. , Noorderhaven N.G. , Hofstede G. & Dienes E. Cross-cultural differences in Central Europe Journal of Managerial Psychology 2003 18 76 88
Kuhnen U. , Hannover B. & Roeder U. Cross-cultural variations in identifying embedded figures: Comparisons from the United States, Germany, Russia, and Malaysia Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology 2001 32 365 371
Lake A. A. , Hyland R. M. , Rugg-Gunn A. J. , Wood C. E. , Mathers J. C. & Adamson A. J. Healthy eating: perceptions and practice (the ASH30 study) Appetite 2007 48 176 182
Martínez-González M.A. , Holgado B. , Gibney M. , Kearney J. & Martínez J.A. Definitions of healthy eating in Spain as compared to other European Member States European Journal of Epidemiology 2000 16 557 564
Nisbett R.E. , Peng K. , Choi I. & Norenzayan A. Culture and systems of thought: holistic versus analytic cognition Psychological Review 2001 108 291 310
Povey R. , Conner M. , Sparks P. , James R. & Shepherd R. Interpretations of healthy and unhealthy eating, and implications for dietary change Health Education Research 1998 13 171 183
Ronteltap A. , Sijtsema S. J. , Dagevos H. & de Winter M. A. Construal levels of healthy eating. Exploring consumers’ interpretation of health in the food context Appetite 2012 59 333 340
Scrinis G. On the ideology of nutritionism Gastronomica: The Journal of Food and Culture 2008 8 39 48
Smith P.B. ‘Acquiescent Response Bias as an Aspect of Cultural Communication Style’ Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology 2004 35 50 61
Triandis H.C. Individualism and collectivism 1995 Boulder, CO Westview Press
Triandis H.C. & Gelfand M.J. Converging measurement of horizontal and vertical individualism and collectivism Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 1998 74 118 128
Varnum M.E.W. , Bowman N. & Nisbett R.E. The psychological impact of transition: Shifts toward independent theory of agency in post-communist Central Europe 2008a Poster presented at the 9th annual meeting of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology Albuquerque, NM
Varnum M.E. , Grossmann I. , Nisbett R.E. & Kitayama S. Holism in a European cultural context: Differences in cognitive style between Central and East Europeans and Westerners Journal of Cognition and Culture 2008b 8 3 4
All Time | Past Year | Past 30 Days | |
---|---|---|---|
Abstract Views | 517 | 89 | 5 |
Full Text Views | 143 | 3 | 0 |
PDF Views & Downloads | 45 | 10 | 0 |
What counts as healthy eating varies both within and across cultures. While people often focus on specific foods and nutrients, the timing and style of eating (eating context) can also be an important consideration, and one that appears to vary across cultures. One possible explanation for this variation is differences in basic cognition, with holistic thinking in collectivist cultures favouring contextual factors. We assess this hypothesis by examining perceptions between two cultural groups that vary in collectivism. In study 1, we investigate whether residents of Ukraine place more importance on considerations of eating context than residents of the usa. In study 2, we test whether this between-country difference is due to the mediating effect of individual differences in collectivism. Ukrainian participants consistently placed more importance on context (Cohen’s d = 0.71–0.84; p < 0.01) and were more collectivist (Cohen’s d = 0.95, p < 0.001). A mediation analysis shows that collectivism significantly mediates the effect of nationality on context endorsement, and renders the effect of nationality non-significant (p > 0.05). These results suggest that the holistic pattern of attention might extend to the domain of nutrition and may account for some cross-cultural differences in perceptions of healthy eating. We briefly discuss the benefits of perception focused on the context of eating, such as decreased burden of self-regulation in a food-rich environment.
All Time | Past Year | Past 30 Days | |
---|---|---|---|
Abstract Views | 517 | 89 | 5 |
Full Text Views | 143 | 3 | 0 |
PDF Views & Downloads | 45 | 10 | 0 |