Amelia Asperin, Ph.D. - North Dakota State University WooMi Jo Phillips, Ph.D. - North Dakota State University Kara Wolfe, Ph.D.- Bradley University EXPLORING FOOD NEOPHOBIA AND PERCEPTIONS OF ETHNIC FOODS: THE CASE OF CHINESE AND THAI CUISINES EXPLORING FOOD NEOPHOBIA AND PERCEPTIONS OF ETHNIC FOODS: THE CASE OF CHINESE AND THAI CUISINES

INTRODUCTION Purpose –Explore how students attending a university in the upper Midwestern portion of the U.S. perceive Chinese and Thai cuisine in the context of food attitudes. –Measure students’ willingness, or lack thereof, to try new or different types of food in general. –Explore whether food neophobia is reflected on their perceptions of familiar or unfamiliar ethnic cuisines. –Test the stability of the Food Neophobia Scale (FNS) and Food Attitudes Scale (FAS) when using a college- age population

METHODOLOGY Data Collection –An online questionnaire via external survey software provider was distributed to undergraduate students in a Food and World Cultures class Data Analysis –Descriptive statistics –Confirmatory Factor Analysis* –Mean comparisons * Secondary Exploratory Factor Analysis was performed on FAS items because the model was a poor fit for the data

RESULTS FOOD NEOPHOBIA SCALE

RESULTS Secondary EFA extractions and reliability testing resulted in two factors: FOOD ATTITUDE SCALE (CHINESE FOOD)

RESULTS Secondary EFA extractions and reliability testing resulted in four factors: FOOD ATTITUDE SCALE (THAI FOOD)

RESULTS Respondents with low food neophobia scores were more likely to have more positive attitudes towards the cuisines and were more likely to have tried the cuisine. Highly food neophobic respondents generally had negative attitudes towards Chinese and Thai cuisine and were more likely to have no experience with the cuisines. No significant differences based on age, gender, or characteristic of residential area prior to attending college MEAN DIFFERENCES

DISCUSSION AND IMPLICATIONS Implications –Midwest population may look at ethnic cuisines in a general manner such as being positive or negative –FAS may factor into different dimensions depending on the particular cuisine. FAS is not stable when measuring a general perception of a cuisine as a whole.

DISCUSSION AND IMPLICATIONS Implications –This could be used for testing the acceptability of specific menu items as a component of menu planning for ethnic restaurants. –Information gleaned can be utilized for development of marketing platforms to address any negative attributes perceived. Researchers may be able to use the FAS if specific examples of food are provided.

Future Research Methodology and framework can be used to evaluate the viability of other lesser- known cuisines in unchartered markets Comparing food neophobia and food attitude scores pre and post education about ethnic cuisines