1,721,083 research outputs found
Re: Phase II Trial of Neoadjuvant Systemic Chemotherapy Followed by Extirpative Surgery in Patients with High Grade Upper Tract Urothelial Carcinoma
No full textConsumer preference and willingness to pay for 3D-printed chocolates: A discrete choice experiment
No full textThis study explores the emerging field of 3D food printing, specifically examining consumer preferences for 3D-printed chocolate bars. While 3D printing has revolutionized various industries, the consumer acceptance of 3D-printed food remains a relatively underexplored topic. A discrete choice experiment was conducted to investigate consumer preferences and willingness to pay for 3D-printed chocolate bars in the UK. Key attributes included in the study were price, chocolate type, and the use of 3D printing technology. Using a mixed logit model, preference heterogeneity was assessed, revealing a general inclination towards 3D-printed chocolates, with an estimated increase in willingness to pay of £0.21 per 100 g. Furthermore, the influence of individual (participants’) characteristics, such as age, gender, prior knowledge of 3D food printing, and food technology neophobia, on perceived benefits associated with this technology and willingness to pay was also explored, using a structural equation modeling analysis. The results indicated that only perceived hedonic benefits, such as improved texture, positively impacted the willingness to pay, while food technology neophobia acted as a significant barrier. The results of this study therefore contribute valuable insights into the consumer acceptance of 3D-printed foods, specifically chocolates, highlighting potential avenues for market adoption and emphasizing the importance of effective communication in shaping consumer attitudes toward novel food processing technologies
Assessing the visual appeal of real/AI-generated food images
No full textA study designed to investigate the ability of individuals to differentiate between AI-generated and authentic food images, as well as the impact of disclosing this information on the consumer perception of the appeal of these images is reported. Two online experiments were conducted with real and AI-generated food images stretching across the unprocessed, processed, and ultra-processed food continuum. Study 1 was designed to assess the accuracy with which people could identify AI-generated food images while Study 2 explored how the disclosure of an image's origin influenced the appeal of the depicted food. The participants in Study 1 found it very easy to recognize the AI-generated images, particularly in the case of ultra-processed foods. Notably, without disclosure, the AI-generated images were often preferred. At the same time, however, disclosing that a food image was genuine significantly boosted its appeal, whereas the revelation that it had been generated by AI mitigated this effect. These insights help to understand consumer psychology in the rapidly-evolving digital food marketing landscape, highlighting the nuanced effects of technological advancements in AI image-generation on human perception
Consumer perceptions and preferences for urban farming, hydroponics, and robotic cultivation: A case study on parsley
No full textConsumer attitudes toward novel fresh herb cultivation methods, including urban farming, hydroponics, and robotic cultivation, were explored among 148 participants in the UK. Urban farming emerged as the preferred method, followed by hydroponics, while robotic cultivation was least favoured. The study tested two hypotheses regarding the influence of environmental concern on acceptance of parsley from the different methods, and the impact of food technology neophobia on acceptance of parsley from hydroponics and robotic cultivation. Consumer levels of environmental concern positively influenced their acceptance of parsley from urban farming, while food technology neophobia negatively impacted the consumer acceptance of hydroponic and robotic cultivation methods. The study underscores the perceived natural elements inherent in these methods. Urban farming seems to align well with consumers’ values of nature and sustainability. Tailored messaging highlighting the natural aspects of all these methods, and addressing concerns about the use of technology, may help to bridge the gap between innovation and consumer acceptance, contributing to the delicate balance between tradition and innovation in agricultural strategies. At the same time, however, the study's exploratory nature may limit the generalizability of the results. Future research could broaden the participant sample and explore additional psychological factors shaping attitudes toward novel agricultural techniques
Exploring the roles of online moral disengagement, body esteem, and psychosexual variables in predicting sexting motivations and behaviours
No full textStudies on sexting motivations have produced a wealth of data and valuable information, but the roles of potentially relevant psychological variables in predicting specific sexting motivations have rarely been investigated. This study aims to explore, in a sample of 587 Italian adults (Mage = 25.5; SD = 6), whether online moral disengagement, body dissatisfaction, and three psychosexual variables can predict different sexting motivations (i.e., body image reinforcement, sexual, and aggravated/instrumental motivations), and whether these reasons can predict different sexting behaviours, such as private sexting, sexts’ dissemination, and posting own’ sexts online. A full Structural Equation Modeling analysis was carried out to explore the relationships between predictors of sexting motivations, sexting motivations, and sexting behaviours. Results showed that sending sexts privately was positively affected by all three sexting motivations. Posting own’ sexts online was only affected by body image reinforcement in a positive direction, whereas disseminating others’ sexts was only positively predicted by aggravated/instrumental reasons. In turn, body image reinforcement was positively affected by sexual preoccupation and negatively by body esteem. Sexual purposes were instead positively predicted by sexual esteem and sexual satisfaction and negatively by online moral disengagement and body esteem. Finally, aggravated/instrumental reasons were positively influenced by online moral disengagement and sexual preoccupation. Our study highlights the role of online moral disengagement in predicting aggravated/instrumental reasons, which lead to harmful or even illegal forms of sexting, and further supports the idea that aggravated and experimental sexting are two distinct behaviours, with distinct precursors
Beyond one-size-fits-all: Consumers react differently to packaging colors and names of cultured meat in Italy
No full textCultured meat, also known as “in-vitro meat,” “clean meat,” “synthetic meat,” “lab-grown meat” and many other nomenclatures, represents one of the most recent controversial food technologies, even with its environmental benefits. Although the market success of cultured meat depends on consumers' acceptance, specific characteristics such as name and packaging color can influence consumers' perceptions and acceptance of the food product. This study assessed the impact of the name and packaging color of cultured meat on consumers' behavioral intentions toward its consumption in Italy. With the assumption that names and packaging colors affect consumers’ acceptance differently, according to their characteristics and food neophobia, this study used a finite mixture model to analyze the stimulus impacts across different groups of consumers. The results showed that food neophobia plays a relevant role in individual response to name and packaging color of cultured meat. Less neophobic consumers are more likely to be positively affected in their intentions by green color packaging and nomenclatures that least emphasize the unnaturalness of the product, such as “clean meat,” whereas neophobic consumers are more likely to be positively affected only by green color
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
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