Essential shape: The role of essentialist beliefs in preferences for misshapen produce

Abstract

Understanding the reasons behind consumer rejection of misshapen produce is important because of its dramatic consequences on food waste. Drawing on psychological essentialism, we conduct seven studies to investigate the role of produce shape-related essentialist beliefs (i.e., the belief that produce shape is determined by an underlying and unobservable essence) in consumers’ evaluations of misshapen produce. Our findings show that essentialist beliefs about produce shape are divided into four distinct dimensions (i.e., biological basis, discreteness, informativeness, and immutability). We find that endorsing discreteness beliefs decreases preferences for misshapen produce. Immutability beliefs produce the opposite effect, whereas informativeness and biological basis have little to no effect. These effects operate through typicality judgments. These findings suggest that considering essentialist beliefs have the potential to help enhance the acceptance of edible albeit misshapen produce.