농수산식품인증제도에 대한 소비자 신념 및 구매의도의 편향성에 관한 연구

Abstract

Imagine a debate between two scientists you see on television. They have opposing views. Perhaps A is promoting the benefits of GMO(Genetically Modified Organism) foods while B warning of negative environmental impacts and potential risks. In this case, you will probably expect to witness something like this: A presents evidence supporting his position and B provides alternative evidence for his case. Then A attempts to discredit or diminish B’s evidence, while B does the same to A. At the end of the debate neither has changed their views in the slightest, despite both being intelligent, well educated, and very knowledgeable about the topic. There are several possible cognitive biases that could operate in such argument, but the one of interest here is belief bias. A number of authors(Evans et al., 1983; Evans and Curtis-Holmes, 2005; Thompson and Evans, 2012; Kim and Han, 2012) assume that there is a general bias for people to accept uncritically the conclusions of evidence when the conclusion accords with their prior beliefs; by contrast, they tend to dismiss or discredit evidence that supports a conclusion that they do not agree with. This belief bias effect is pervasive and robust, and has been noted on a large variety of reasoning tasks, both formal and informal(Thompson and Evans, 2012). Many people who have a high level of prior beliefs on a subject frequently make biased choices and decisions instead of conducting an accurate and objective information process. The aim of this study is to test of consumers' biased information process leading to purchase food due to their prior beliefs on food certifications. In other words, this study examined the effects of consumer beliefs for food certifications on the behavioral intentions and the behavioral intention biases to buy the certified foods. The food certifications used on this study are ‘Organic foods', ‘Traceability system of food products' and ‘HACCP(Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point)'. They are applied all kind of foods(agricultural, fishery, livestock products and processed foods) in Korea. Also, the level of consumer awareness of them is fairly higher than other food certifications. This study investigates consumers' prior beliefs for the three certifications by conducting analysis of laws and consumer interviews and then examines the effects of each of the prior beliefs on the purchasing behavior intentions(PBI) and PBI biases for the certified foods. This study also focuses on the differences of the level of the biases between agricultural and fishery products. The representative foods of agricultural and fishery products on this study are tofu and seasoned laver. Each food has a long history being treated as a popular side dish in Korea, which means they are vastly preferable and familiar to Koreans. Also, both are ones of the most consumed and frequently eaten foods by Koreans. According to the Department of Health and Human Services(2015), they were highly placed on the commonly consumed food list by Korean in 2014. To achieve the aim of this study, I used non-qualitative analysis but a subjective probability model which is on the basis of mathematical probability model. This study produced subjective probability of consumers PBI through the model. Then the covariance model was used to compare the level of the PBI biases between the comsumer groups with high and low PBI. The current study showed the following results. First, consumers have more than two different prior beliefs each for all food certifications which are the subjects of this study. The prior beliefs of the certifications have an impact on the consumers when they consider to buy the certified food products. The level of the prior beliefs were different by the certifications and the food species(agricultural versus fishery products). Second, consumers try to persuade by themselves to ensure that their particular belief about the certification could lead to a purchase the products. In other words, they make a positive PBI bias for the certified food products in order to maintain their prior belief of the certification. Consumer prior beliefs of the “environmentally friendly production" on the organic foods certification is an important factor as much as the “guarantee of food safety" belief making a positive PBI bias for the organic food products. Consumers also have a positive PBI bias for certified products in all certifications regardless of food species as long as a certification is considered to “guarantee the transparency of the food distribution process" as its prior belief. ‘Traceability system of food products' was the only one which didn't generate a positive PBI bias from the prior belief of “guarantee of food safety" out of three certifications. Third, the result of this study confirmed the differences of the PBI biases between agricultural and fishery certified products(i.e. tofu and seasoned laver). Consumers have underestimated the safety of the certified fishery products in comparison with agricultural products even if both of the products obtained the same certifications(HACCP, traceability systems). However, consumers have much more positive consideration to purchase the certified fishery products compare with the agricultural products as long as they already believe the certification can “guarantee the transparency of the food distribution process" as its prior belief. Our study provides clear, quantitative and meaningful evidence of the effects of consumer beliefs for food certifications on the behavioral intentions and the behavioral intention biases. That is because our findings are based on a subjective probability model and covariation-based model both are on the basis of mathematical probability model. The strength of this study is that findings are expressed as a probability which can present the impact of consumer beliefs on the behavioral intention biases more visible and obviously.