Measuring the Affective and Cognitive Bases of Implicit and Explicit Attitudes Towards Domestic and Foreign Food Brands

Abstract

The problem of accounting automatic affective and cognitive processes as bases for implicit attitudes towards brands, as well as methods for measuring them, is poorly developed. An analysis of previous research shows that the study of attitudes towards brands in terms of their affective and cognitive components is mainly carried out using self-assessment procedures. The aim of this research is to measure the affective and cognitive bases of implicit and explicit attitudes towards brands of domestic and foreign foods. Participants N = 131, aged 17-57 (Mdn = 31). Measures: specifically designed methodically balanced procedures for measuring implicit and explicit attitudes towards food brands: affective and cognitive implicit associative tests (IAT), Self-Concept IAT; emotional and cognitive explicit procedures and demographic questionnaires. The consistency of the results of implicit and explicit measurements is shown. The results of the measurements of implicit attitudes using three IAT procedures are related too. Using factor analysis, the independence of the constructs of explicit and implicit attitudes towards brands was confirmed, which is interpreted in terms of the theory of double attitudes. The greatest contribution to the implicit attitude, measured by the Self-concept IAT, is made by the cognitive component of attitude, which represents the implicit brand associations of domestic or foreign foods with attributes that characterize the price and quality of the foods. All implicit assessments obtained separately using the affective and cognitive procedures of the IAT, as well as the Self-concept IAT, testified in favour of the preference for foods of domestic brands. However, explicit assessments of the frequency of consumption of the brands under consideration did not reveal preferences for any of them. This discrepancy is seen not only as evidence of a possible ambivalent interaction between affective and cognitive associations, but also as an indication of the importance of future measurements of implicit assessments of instrumental associations that are the result of instrumental learning from consumers. This has the potential to improve the predictive validity of implicit measurements of brand attitudes and to better understand the structure of implicit consumer attitudes and the mechanisms of their influence on behaviour.