Healthy food purchase intention: The moderation effect of intuitive thinking and perceived knowledge

Abstract

This paper aims to study the relationships among intuitive thinking, nutritional information, perceived knowledge, subjective norm, trust, and health concerns on purchase intention. The study was conducted with 461 consumers in Brazil. Structure Equation Modeling (SEM) was applied. Most of our hypotheses were supported and demonstrated that consumers with high perceived knowledge care less about social influence. On the other hand, when it comes to using nutritional information to develop trust in food producers, consumers rely more on intuitive thinking. Trust and health consciousness have a positive effect on purchase intention. Policymakers can benefit from the results to develop accurate public policies, and food manufacturers can use them to adequate resolutions and implement labels with consumers’ well-being under perspective. We confirmed that if consumers perceive that they have sufficient knowledge and can make their decisions mostly based on it, less they will rely on subjective norms.