An exploratory study on the development of a ‘foodie’ scale: Evidence from a study on students in India

Abstract

Most of us can identify a few foodies from our social network. This suggests that we have an intuitive understanding of what defines a foodie. However, there is no objective way to assess whether someone is a foodie or not. Here, we developed a questionnaire that measures the construct “foodie”, that has been shown through multiple qualitative studies to exert influence over people’s food choices. We operationalised the construct “foodie” and developed a 24-item questionnaire that is psychometrically sound. The items were tested in three empirical studies (n = 470) and the scale was found to have strong internal consistency. Overall, four factors emerged: strong love for food, perceived knowledge of food, food-seeking behaviour, and knowledge acquisition. Each factor displayed associations with other constructs from the literature, and thus, provided substantial evidence for the validity of the scale. We discuss how our measure of foodie introduces a new perspective around people’s relationship with food, is different from similar constructs such as food involvement, and may have important clinically relevant implications to various aspects of social life such as physical and emotional health, food tourism, and food production.