Investigating the effects of altruism on consumer preference for food from disaster-affected regions: A case of Japan

Abstract

Consumer's willingness to donate to support the disaster-affected region is known to be related to altruism. This study examines how consumer preference for food from disaster-affected regions is affected by the degree of consumer's altruism level and identifies the difference in the impacts from such altruism by types of food. A choice experiment was conducted on Japanese consumers and combinations of generalized mixed logit model and latent class analysis were applied on the obtained sample. The study finds that food that is consumed locally like rice tends to be less effective to draw donative attitudes compared to food distributed more widely at the national level. The study also reveals that a luxury good like tuna, which is found to be connected to altruism, is more effective to lure donative consumption toward food from disaster-affected regions. • Effects of altruism on food from the disaster regions are investigated. • A discrete choice experiment is conducted on Japanese consumers. • Generalized mixed logit model and latent class analysis are applied. • Rice is the least affected by altruism. • The effects of altruism become the most visible for tuna.