Abstract
Consumer cognitive biases arise from judgment and decision-making due to their limitations in information processing. As one of the important cognitive biases, the anchoring effect plays a significant role in interfering with consumers’ risk perception. With a stratified random approach, we collected survey data from 375 consumers in Wuxi, Jiangsu Province, China. Based on these data, this study attempted to analyze the anchoring effect in consumers’ risk perception of foodborne diseases (FBDs) and the differences in their perception before and after intervention in a contrast experiment using the anchoring index and the Wilcoxon signed-rank test. The results confirm the existence of the proposed anchoring effect. Moreover, the experimenter-provided anchor value, a history of FBD, and familiarity with FBD were found to be important factors influencing this anchoring effect. Therefore, improving consumers’ risk perception of FBD is critical to the long-term prevention of FBD risks by the government and consumers. The government should strengthen active monitoring, publicity, and education about FBD.
Highlights
In recent years, the frequency of foodborne disease (FBD) outbreaks has increased, which continues to be a major public health issue [1]
There are more than 250 different foodborne diseases described [3], and more and more people are in the high-risk category of FBD [4]
As one of the important cognitive biases [26], the anchoring effect was first proposed by Kahneman and Tversky [25], who pointed out that consumers did not always follow the rationality principle in making judgments and decisions, and often adjust their estimates and make final judgments based on subjective understanding and initial reference information
Summary
The frequency of foodborne disease (FBD) outbreaks has increased, which continues to be a major public health issue [1]. When the level of risk perceived by consumers reaches the objective risk level can they pay more attention to health-protective behavior and effectively reduce the risk of FBD [16,17]. Against this backdrop, it is meaningful to systematically investigate if there are anchoring effects during the process when consumers are sensing FBD risks. It is meaningful to systematically investigate if there are anchoring effects during the process when consumers are sensing FBD risks This could contribute by improving consumers’ knowledge about FBD risks, enabling them to care more about their health and to minimize cognitive biases related to FBD. The main factors affecting cognitive biases were examined to provide recommendations for the prevention of FBD
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