The Silver Lining of the Pandemic! The Impact of Risk Perception of COVID-19 on Green Foods Purchase Intention

Abstract

As the COVID-19 crisis heightened consumers’ risk perceptions, they have become more aware of the health benefits of consuming green foods, which are of fine quality, nutritious, and produced under sustainable principles. The present research investigated the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on the intention to purchase green foods with the serial mediating roles of health consciousness, environmental consciousness, and attitude toward sustainable food consumption, as well as the moderating role of generations. Protection motivation theory was applied as a behavioral framework to study changes in consumer awareness, attitudes, and behavioral intentions in terms of consuming sustainable nutrition during the COVID-19 pandemic. For this purpose, this study was conducted in Turkey with 631 participants who were surveyed online. The results support our main hypothesis that the risk perception of COVID-19 is positively related to the intention to purchase green foods, indicating individuals’ beliefs and motivations toward consuming healthy and environmentally friendly products. Our study further shows that risk perception of the COVID-19 pandemic had a positive effect on health and environmental consciousness and consequently affected individuals’ attitudes toward sustainable food consumption. We also demonstrated a serial mediation relationship in which health consciousness, environmental consciousness, and a positive attitude toward sustainable food consumption mediated the effect of the risk perception of COVID-19 and the intention to purchase green foods. Interestingly, the findings indicate that generations do not have a significant effect on the relationship between the risk perception of a COVID-19 pandemic and the intention to purchase green food.