Abstract
This pilot study aims to investigate the relationships between consumers' weight status, energy density of food and visual attention towards food during unplanned purchase behavior in a real-world environment. After more than a decade of intensive experimental eye tracking research on food perception, this pilot study attempts to link experimental and field research in this area. Shopping trips of participants with different weight status were recorded with mobile eye tracking devices and their unplanned purchase behavior was identified and analyzed. Different eye movement measurements for initial orientation and maintained attention were analyzed. Differences in visual attention caused by energy density of food were found. There was a tendency across all participants to look at low energy density food longer and more often.
Highlights
This study investigates the relationships between an individuals’ weight status measured as body mass index (BMI), energy density of food (ED) and visual attention (VA) towards food products during unplanned purchases in a real-life supermarket
Results were generated from 19 participants, wearing the eye tracking device during two different shopping trips
Participants were classified as participants with normal weight (18.5 < BMI < 25, calculated as kg/m2) and overweight or obesity (BMI 25)
Summary
This study investigates the relationships between an individuals’ weight status measured as body mass index (BMI), energy density of food (ED) and visual attention (VA) towards food products during unplanned purchases in a real-life supermarket. The study adds to the body of literature that already investigated the relationships between food choice and VA towards food under experimental conditions [e.g. 1–8]. It extends this perspective by embedding it in the empirical approach of unplanned purchase behavior [9, 10]. Researching unplanned purchase behavior means researching real food choices made at the POS in everyday life without any constraint. Exclusive researching of unplanned purchase behavior compared to all purchases, limits the number of relevant purchase decisions to a manageable amount for data preparation and analysis
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