Consumer Beliefs Research Articles

CSR Fraud and Consumer Opinions: What Simulated “tweets” Can Explain about Consumer Beliefs in CSR

This research examines what companies can learn from consumer statements made about them over social media, specifically, how the valence (positive or negative statements) and tweet character (emotional or rational statements) of consumer statements coupled with the type of CSR/CSR related fraud impacts consumers’ beliefs about firm CSR use as well as firm confidence. This was conducted via an experimental design manipulating the type of CSR used and related fraud, and then participants responded to the events via simulated tweets and responded to questions about their beliefs in firms engaging in CSR as well as their overall confidence in a firm. Through applying how individuals assess moral judgments via ethical philosophies (idealism vs. relativism) and how those apply to the types of “tweets” made (emotional vs. rational), it was found that the valence and character of a tweet coupled with the CSR type and the related CSR fraud can be used to understand CSR beliefs and confidence in the firm. Additionally, it was found that tweet valence (positive or negative) moderated by the tweet character (emotional vs. rational) impacts the beliefs that firms should engage in CSR. In certain instances, some consumers will not like that a firm engages in CSR, therefore, after a fraud and related negative buzz, it is recommended that firms withhold broadcasting their CSR activities.

Attitudes and beliefs of French consumers towards innovative food products that mix dairy and plant-based components

Reducing consumption of animal-based protein in favor of plant-based protein in Western diets could be a way to mitigate the pressure of our diet on the environment. However, consumers may find it challenging to re-balance their diet. In particular, milk substitution seems difficult to some consumers, for nutritional and sensory reasons. New products that mix dairy- and plant-based components could be an opportunity to gradually familiarize consumers with plant-based products characteristics. In the present study, attitudes and expectations of French participants toward such dairy and plant-based mixed products were studied through the implementation of online Check-All-That-Apply (CATA) questionnaires using images of fictional mixed products. Participants responded to a single-item food choice questionnaire (SI-FCQ) and a socio-demographic questionnaire. Three profiles were found according to their criteria of food choice. The attitudes and beliefs of participants toward mixed products depended on both the nature of the plant component of the mixed products, and the profile of participants regarding SI-FCQ answers. Mixed dairy and plant-based products may be considered as more than a combination of both ingredients, and even globally as a new object. This opens new perspectives on eating habit changes.

Infant food users' perceptions of safety: A web-based analysis approach.

This paper aims to explore consumer beliefs about health hazards in infant foods by analyzing data gathered from the web, focusing on forums for parents in the UK. After selecting a subset of posts and classifying them by topic, according to the food product discussed and the health hazard discussed, two types of analyses were performed. Pearson correlation of term-occurrences highlighted what hazard-product pairs are most prevalent. Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) regression performed on sentiment measures generated from the texts provided significant results indicating positive or negative sentiment, objective or subjective language, and confident or unconfident modality associated with different food products and health hazards. The results allow comparison between perceptions obtained in different countries in Europe and may lead to recommendations concerning information and communication priorities.

Perspective: Organic food consumption during pregnancy and the potential effects on maternal and offspring health.

Pregnancy represents a critical window for both maternal and child health. Previous studies have shown that the consumption of an organic diet during pregnancy can reduce pesticide exposure compared with the consumption of a conventional diet. It is possible that this could, in turn, improve pregnancy outcomes, because maternal pesticide exposure during pregnancy has been associated with increased risk of pregnancy complications. Organic foods are produced by methods that comply with organic standards, generally restricting the use of agrochemicals, such as synthetic pesticides. In the past few decades, the global demand for organic foods has increased drastically, driven in large part by consumer beliefs that organic foods provide benefits to human health. However, the effects of organic food consumption during pregnancy on maternal and child health have not been established. This narrative review aims to summarize current evidence regarding the consumption of organic foods during pregnancy and the potential effects on short- and long-term health outcomes in mothers and offspring. We performed a comprehensive literature search and identified studies investigating the association between organic food consumption during pregnancy and health outcomes in mothers and their offspring. The outcomes identified from the literature search included pre-eclampsia, gestational diabetes mellitus, hypospadias, cryptorchidism, and otitis media. Although existing studies suggest that consumption of organic foods (overall or a specific kind) during pregnancy may have health benefits, further investigation to replicate the findings in other populations is needed. Moreover, because these previous studies have all been observational and thus may be limited by the potential for residual confounding and reverse causation, causal inference cannot be established. We argue that the next necessary step in this research is a randomized trial to test the efficacy of organic diet intervention in pregnancy on maternal and offspring health.

УКРАЇНСЬКЕ СУСПІЛЬСТВО: КОМУНІКАТИВНІ МЕХАНІЗМИ КОНСОЛІДАЦІЇ

The study is devoted to the analysis of communicative mechanisms for establishing constructive relations between the authorities and civil society. The fundamental basis of such interaction is the constant practice of communicative discourse between both parties. Clarification of initial and situational positions and problems is a prerequisite for their discussion and search for optimal solutions. A similar state of affairs is achieved by publicizing a frank position by each of the participants in political life. At the same time, the discourse appears as a logical-semantic speech given of the text (message), directed from the subject to the object of perception, with its own self-sufficient logistics and meanings that reflect the course of reasoning and evidence of the creator of the message. The main function of political discourse is informative, the main goal is hermeneutic, i.e. comprehensibility, receptivity, the purpose of discourse is the objectification of one’s own ideas in the form of consumer beliefs and values. The creative consolidation possibilities of means of communicative discourse are revealed: compromise, agreement, solidarity, consensus, empathy, etc. Attention is drawn to the possibility of using the structures and capabilities of civil society in order to institutionalize democratic decisions and actions of the authorities.

Youth materialism and consumer ethics: do Gen Z adolescents’ self-concepts (power and self-esteem) vary across cultures (China vs. France)?

ABSTRACT Youth materialism excites adolescents’ unethical consumer beliefs (UCB-dishonesty). We develop a second-stage moderated mediation model, investigate the relationships between materialism and Generation Z teenagers’ consumer ethics (UCB-dishonesty), and treat two self-concept mechanisms (power and self-esteem) as dual mediators and culture as a moderator (China vs. France). We theorize that materialism enhances power (public self) and reduces self-esteem (private self). French adolescents’ sense of power increases UCB more than their Chinese counterparts. Chinese teenagers’ self-esteem reduces UCB more than their French counterparts. We challenge the assumption that the interaction effects between consumers’ self-concepts and UCB are the same across cultures. We offer the following discoveries based on 1,005 (409 Chinese and 596 French) adolescents. First, the measurement model of consumer ethics with four subconstructs is superior to the model with one overall construct. Second, a sense of power and self-esteem mediate the relationships between youth materialism and consumer ethics, creating two positive and negative paths for power and self-esteem, respectively. Third, French adolescents display a higher magnitude and positive intensity between adolescents’ power (public self) and UCB-dishonesty than their Chinese counterparts across all four subconstructs. Chinese teenagers illustrate a lower magnitude but a higher negative intensity between self-esteem and UCB than their French counterparts across three subconstructs, with one exception: Adolescents’ self-esteem has no impact on “no harm, no foul” across cultures. Neither buyers nor sellers experience substantial financial gains or losses. Finally, cultures moderate the second-stage mediation effects. Scholars must enhance adolescents’ self-esteem and curb their power to promote honesty. We offer implications for materialism, consumer ethics, self-concepts, and culture for consumers and retailers.

Privacy‐Enhancing Factors and Consumer Concerns: The Moderating Effects of the General Data Protection Regulation

AbstractPrivacy is a fundamental right, with humans often wanting to keep their information private. Technological advancements are now challenging this right by reducing our control and creating enhanced privacy risks. The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is a law introduced to protect this right. The aim of this paper is to analyse how privacy‐enhancing factors can influence consumer privacy concerns and whether these have been affected by consumer beliefs relating to the GDPR. This paper examines the influence of four privacy‐enhancing factors (i.e. organizational trust, perceived personalization value, perceived consumer control and data transparency), which mostly have personality or attitude‐like traits, and the GDPR as a moderating variable. Data were collected from 1154 respondents residing in European Union countries. Results reveal that personalization value has a significant negative relationship with privacy concerns, while consumer control shares a significant positive relationship with privacy concerns. Organizational trust and data transparency did not have a significant effect on privacy concerns. The relationship between the privacy‐enhancing factors and privacy concerns was not moderated by consumer belief in the GDPR. Implications and recommendations are provided to indicate which privacy‐enhancing factors should be chosen to reduce privacy concerns and to highlight the role of the GDPR in moderating these relationships. Ultimately, the study's findings provide useful insights for firms operating online in Europe and marketers aiming to reduce their consumers’ privacy concerns.

The Secondary Luxury Consumer: An Investigation into Online Consumption

The secondary luxury market is a recent phenomenon attributed to changing consumer beliefs that influence their consumption process. The purpose of this study was to explain consumption behaviors of secondary luxury consumers by investigating secondary consumer beliefs and purchase intention, specifically in the context of online shopping. An online survey was created in Qualtrics to collect data. After a preliminary analysis, structural equation modeling was used to conduct a confirmatory factory analysis and to test the hypothesized relationships. The findings revealed that all consumer beliefs, including environmental, frugality, online retailing, and fashion consciousness, positively influenced consumers’ attitudes and subsequent purchase intention for second-hand luxury items from online secondary luxury retailers. This study added to the literature by utilizing the Theory of Planned Behavior framework and incorporating the secondary luxury consumer beliefs. Ultimately, the researchers were able to better understand this online secondary luxury consumer and what influences the consumer to purchase secondary luxury goods from online retailers such as The RealReal.

Love or like: gender effects in emotional expression in online reviews

Purpose Given the socialisation of men and women to their gender roles and expression of emotion, this study aims to investigate whether there are gender differences in the use of emotive language in electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM), specifically in online reviews. The authors propose that female reviewers will use strong emotive terms, such as love, more frequently in online reviews than do male reviewers. The authors further propose that the gender of the reviewer influences audience responses to the reviewer’s use of emotive terms in online reviews. Design/methodology/approach The authors conducted secondary data analysis of restaurant reviews (Study 1) to provide evidence on whether the gender of the reviewer affects the frequency of use of emotive terms in an online review. In addition, three separate experiments (Studies 2–4) were conducted to test the theoretical arguments. Findings The results of the secondary data analysis indicated that female online reviewers used the term “love” much more frequently in their reviews than male reviewers, whereas there was no usage difference for the term “like”. The experimental studies further showed that an emotive review by a male reviewer containing the word “love” resulted in a higher evaluation of the restaurant being reviewed than a non-emotive review containing the word “like”. This difference was stronger when the overall rating was less salient and for consumers who believe (vs do not believe) that men and women use emotional language differently. Research limitations/implications First, the paper extends our understanding of gender differences in emotional expression within the domain of eWOM and online reviews as well as our understanding of consumer responses to these gender differences. Second, the authors identify a boundary condition for these gender effects, namely, the overall rating score. Third, the authors find that consumer beliefs regarding gender stereotypes in emotional expression provide an explanation for these effects. Practical implications The results of the research indicate that the electronic algorithms operating on review sites might be modified in terms of their criteria for selecting the reviews to display to consumers, as consumer decision-makers may find greater utility in reviews written by male reviewers that contain strongly positive emotive terms. Originality/value The research extends the knowledge on gender differences in emotional expression in online reviews by demonstrating the actual usage patterns and differing responses to the emotional expressions of each gender.

The influence of environmental engagement in the decision to purchase sustainable cosmetics: An analysis using the Theory of Planned Behavior

Purpose: This research aims to identify the influence of environmental engagement on the purchase intention for sustainable cosmetics by Brazilian consumers using the Theory of Planned Behavior. Methodology: In the qualitative phase, the study conducted two in-depth interviews, aiming to build a survey considering the main behavioral, normative, and control consumer beliefs. In the quantitative phase, an online survey was conducted. We analyzed 114 responses from sustainable cosmetics consumers, using SEM. Findings: The results revealed a correlation between purchase intention, consumer attitude, and perceived behavioral control. Although the perceived behavioral control was considered significant, it has a small influence when compared to the individual’s attitude toward the behavior. This means that the stronger the advantages and benefits of using the product, the more likely the consumer is to buy and use it. Also, environmental engagement was proven to positively influence consumer behavioral and normative beliefs. It indicates that the more environmentally engaged the consumer, the greater the advantages the individual perceives in buying sustainable cosmetics. Theoretical contributions: The study extends the theory by determining a model with a significant ability to explain the environmental engagement in sustainable cosmetics’ purchase intention. Regarding consumer behavior, this research has shown that personal feelings are the main influencer of purchase. Relevance/Originality: The increase in sustainable consumption has attracted the attention of the most diverse market segments. This study brings light to new propositions concerning purchase intention and environmental engagement by proposing, testing, and validating a model in the context of sustainable cosmetics.

Factors Influencing Cashless Transactions Behaviour in Malaysia Higher Education Institution

The cashless transaction environment is growing tremendously with the current development of digital technology. These developments will create a cashless society that, with a diverse attitude, shapes consumer behaviour. The objective of this study is to explore the conceptual framework of the study on consumer beliefs in the sustainability of attitudes, intentions, and behaviours of cashless transactions. The main aims of this paper are also to explore the variables suggested by consumer beliefs to form the expected hypothesis to be implemented in these studies. The cashless transaction model will be studied based on attitudes to identify the value of beliefs and best practices among consumers. Based on this attitude, the conceptual framework of the cashless transaction focuses on cognitive value through the factors of belief in cashless transactions. This concept paper is also focused on the use of the Theory of Planned Behaviour and previous studies. Subsequently, this study was conducted to propose an attitude-based cashless transaction model to fit consumers of higher education institutions in Malaysia. It focuses on factors influencing behaviour in cashless transactions based on the conceptual framework. This paper, which specialises in cognitive aspects that will guide the study in the future, ranging from trustworthiness, usefulness, cybersecurity, transaction procedures, attitude, intention, and behaviour in cashless transactions. These factors will be the expected construct of influencing cashless transaction behaviour.

Green Marketing Approaches and Their Impact on Green Purchase Intentions: Mediating Role of Green Brand Image and Consumer Beliefs towards the Environment

Today, customers see businesses as more than just profit seekers, they see them as organizations that are concerned about the well-being of their societies. Therefore, businesses have made sustainability a primary focus by implementing green marketing tactics to encourage consumers to buy green goods. The intention to buy green products was examined in relation to factors such as eco-labelling, green packaging and branding, and green products, premium, and pricing. This study analyses a model that incorporates green marketing techniques based on the responses of 450 people to a survey. In addition, the paper investigates the moderating effect of green brand image and customer views on the environment on the link between green marketing and green purchase intentions. This study’s framework is confirmed by using structural equation modelling (SEM). The findings of this study show that green marketing methods significantly and positively affect customers’ intentions to make environmentally friendly purchases. When looking at the path coefficient between green marketing techniques and green purchase intents, we discovered that green brand image and customer environmental attitudes considerably moderated this relationship. This study provides regional and international enterprises and governments with information on how to enhance consumers’ intentions to make green purchases. Significant findings from this study support favourable social behaviour toward green marketing. Towards the examination of the consumers’ green purchasing intents, this research underlined the importance and function of green brand image and customer attitudes regarding the environment. The packing of the items should be eco-friendly and prevent excessive paper and plastic packaging. Companies should leverage the environmental features of their products for branding purposes.

A case study on beliefs of Organic food consumers

Nowadays, consumers are attempting to make conscious food decisions and favour organic food over its alternatives. An increasing number of research studies show the interest of the academic sector in exploring this changed attitude. Due to their importance in attitude formation, the need arises to comprehend the beliefs of the organic food consumers in depth. The current study tries to explore consumers’ beliefs (behavioural beliefs, normative beliefs, and control beliefs) about organic food in detail. As the exploration of these beliefs requires specific observations, this study is based on qualitative data focusing on consumers’ beliefs about organic food. Data is collected through personal interviews with the respondents in five cities of Punjab and Haryana with a total of 20 participants. Results indicate that consumers perceive organic food as healthy, chemical-free and tasty. High price emerged as a major control belief which limits their purchase and family is most influential in their purchase decisions. The results imply that a quantitative study on beliefs about organic food would be useful to investigate these findings in a larger sample since these findings have several marketing and advertising implications.

The Importance of Limited Self-Determination When M-Channel Migration Strategy Is Implemented

Theoretical background: Multichannel retailers can implement various migration strategies to induce consumers to use particular marketing channel. Some researchers indicated voluntary and forced customer E-channel migration strategies. Due to the negative consequences of a coercive strategy, a voluntary migration strategy is much more popular. Voluntary migration strategy provides multichannel shoppers a total freedom of their choice whereas the incentive-based migration strategy uses some stimulus in order to convince buyers to use specific marketing channel. Encouraging the buyer to behave in a particular way may cause him/her a negative self-determination perception. Limited self-determination means consumer conviction that a certain action was taken as a result of marketing initiatives, prompted by the seller, and is not the result of their free and independent decision. A self-determined customer is convinced of entering into a relationship with the provider on their own initiative. In the context of channel-based price differentiation, it is about the consumer's belief that a specific purchase channel has been selected as a result of a solicitation by the seller. According to researchers, limited self-determination can have potentially negative impact on the intention to buy. Purpose of the article: The presented research model refers to the customer intention to buy online (intention to stay there) in the multichannel context. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to contribute to existing literature on multichannel pricing and advance our understanding of factors influencing the customer intention to make a purchase in offline channel (to stay in a brick-and-mortar store) under the price pressure in mobile app. This study aims to investigate factors affecting the intention to purchase offline when m-channel migration strategy based on price incentives is implemented by the retailer. Special attention is devoted to the issue of limited self-determination in a channel-based price differentiation context. Research methods: The data comes from a questionnaire survey carried out in 2021. This study is a quantitative study employing a scenario-based approach. The total sample size is 500, cosmetics was the product category which the questionnaire was prepared for. For the purpose of the research, a SEM (Structural Equation Modelling) analysis using AMOS 26 was conducted. Main findings: This research extends the understanding of consumer limited self-determination and subjective knowledge and mobile app familiarity and its influence on the intention to buy offline when price incentives are provided in a mobile purchase app. Article adds to the existing literature on customer migration in a multichannel environment.

Kepuasan Konsumen Pengukuran Indeks Kepuasan Konsumen di Puskesmas Dago Bandung

PUSKESMAS, Is a Public health center, which is the primary health service facility for the local government, is required to provide the best possible service for the surrounding community who need health services. Measuring customer satisfaction is done by using the Importance Performance Analysis (IPA) method. In this method, it is necessary to measure the level of conformity to find out how much the customer is satisfied with the company's performance, and how much the service provider understands what the customer wants for the services they provide. In the Importance-Performance Analysis, mapping is carried out into 4 quadrants for all variables that affect service quality. Quadrant divisions in Importance-Performance Analysis are categorized on the X-axis Very Unsatisfactory to Very Satisfying, and the Y-axis Very Unimportant to Very Important. The study was conducted on 31 consumers of the Dago Health Center in Bandung, which aimed to determine customer satisfaction with the services provided by the Puskesmas. There are five factors measured, the quality of service facilities, reliability, responsiveness, confidence, and empathy. The results are then calculated using the Customer Satisfaction Index, and Importance Performance Analysis. The results of testing the validity and reality, resulted in all questionnaire points and respondents declared valid and reliable. The results of the analysis of the average value of expectations and customer satisfaction can be seen that the quality of service facilities, quality of service reliability, quality of service responsiveness, quality of service confidence, quality of service empathy, has an achievement or work performance above 90%. This means that the Dago Health Center in Bandung City has succeeded in fulfilling the desires or satisfying consumers, in fact, the Quality of Service Confidence item has a value of 101% this means that the consumer's belief service exceeds the expectations of consumers. The results of the analysis of the expectation and performance matrices, where the quality of service facilities, service reliability quality, service responsiveness quality, service assurance quality, service empathy quality. The five criteria are in quadrant I, which means that the Dago Health Center is in the strategy to maintain the achievements that have now been achieved, because the five criteria for services provided have met consumer expectations.

AI 기반 패션 챗봇 서비스에 대한 소비자 수용의도

With the steady development of Artificial Intelligence (AI), online stores are adopting chatbot services as virtual shopping assistants. This study proposes the concept of para-social presence to explore the undiscovered role of fashion chatbots'' emotional and relational characteristics on service acceptance. Based on the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), this study investigates the effect of a chatbot''s para-social presence on service acceptance intention through consumers'' beliefs. The web-based experiment was conducted on adult consumers who experienced chatbot services in an online shopping situation. A total of 247 responses were analyzed using confirmatory factor analysis, structural equation modeling, and multi-group SEM by AMOS 21.0 and SPSS 23.0. The findings illustrate that the chatbot''s intimacy positively influenced consumers'' perceived enjoyment, while the chatbot''s understanding had a significant effect on perceived usefulness and ease of use. The chatbot''s involvement had a positive effect on all consumer beliefs. Moreover, perceived ease of use had a positive influence on usefulness. A greater level of perceived usefulness and enjoyment positively heightened consumers'' service acceptance intention. This study also verifies the moderating role of a need for human interaction. Consumers with a high need for human interaction have a relatively low tendency to perceive chatbot services as useful.

Consumer Knowledge and Acceptance of "Algae" as a Protein Alternative: A UK-Based Qualitative Study.

Overconsumption of meat has been recognised as a key contributing factor to the climate emergency. Algae (including macroalgae and microalgae) are a nutritious and sustainable food source that may be utilised as an alternative to animal-based proteins. However, little is known about the consumer awareness and acceptance of algae as a protein alternative. The aim of this qualitative study was to develop a rich and contextualised understanding of consumer beliefs about the use of algae in novel and innovative food products. A total of 34 participants from the UK assisted with our study. Each participant engaged in one focus group, with six focus groups conducted in total. Existing consumer knowledge of algae was discussed before participants explored the idea of algae-based food products. Reflexive (inductive) thematic analysis was used to analyse these data. Results showed that consumers have limited pre-existing knowledge of algae as a food source; however, participants were open to the idea of trying to consume algae. This anticipated acceptance of algae was influenced by several product attributes, including perceived novelty, edibility, healthiness, sustainability, and affordability. These findings highlight algae as a promising protein alternative to support plant-forward diets in the UK and identify key attributes to consider in future product development and marketing strategies.

Man vs machine: how artificial intelligence in banking influences consumer belief in financial advice

PurposeThis research set out to examine how financial advice provided by a human advisor (vs robo-advisor) influences investment intentions in a retail banking context.Design/methodology/approachIn two experiments, between-subjects experimental designs were employed to test the primary hypothesis and identify the underlying causal mechanisms that influence consumer investment decisions.FindingsThe results from two experiments indicate consumers have more belief in financial advice provided by a human financial advisor (vs robo-advisor), when the level of involvement is high. The authors also identify customer belief in the information and the customer's perception of the bank's “customer focus” as the causal mechanisms that have downstream effects on investment intentions.Originality/valueThis research is the first to examine how financial advice received from a human advisor (vs robo-advisor) influences investment intentions in a retail banking context. Furthermore, this research identifies high involvement as a key boundary condition moderating the effects on investment intention and identifies consumer belief in the advice, as well as the bank's perceived level of customer focus as the causal mechanisms influencing investment intentions.

Managing enterprise social media to develop consumer trust

PurposeThis study examines the impact of social media information sharing and usage on consumer beliefs particularly in the credibility of the information provided by e-commerce vendors, and consumer trust formation.Design/methodology/approachDrawing on trust through social media usage and surface credibility, the authors have proposed a research model to investigate consumers satisfaction on food and beverage (F&B) products. Empirical support for the research model was provided by using structural equation modelling using survey data drawn from Malaysian consumers with an account with Facebook.FindingsResults indicate that consumer participation in social media communities support higher levels of consumer trust and ratings of the surface credibility of information provided by an F&B vendor, and surface credibility also helped to develop consumer trust. Trust in the vendor also exerted a positive influence on consumer satisfaction with F&B product offerings. Results suggest that F&B that provide credible and transparent information regarding their branded products, enjoy increased levels of consumer trust, leading to higher levels of consumer satisfaction with their F&B consumption experience.Originality/valueThe result of this research contributes to social commerce branch of literature and has practical implications for practitioners in the F&B industry as a means to survival strategies to embrace critical and challenging period during an endemic, particularly. As such, this study analyses the relationship between social media usage, surface credibility, trust and satisfaction for developing consumer trust while managing enterprise social media.

Consumers' Expectations about Meat from Surgical Castrated or Immunocastrated Male and Female Iberian Pigs.

Simple SummaryPig castration is a common practice in the Iberian breed (boar and gilts), known for the quality of its products. This work studies the effect of pig castration (surgically castrated females and males, immunocastrated females and males and entire females) on the sensory expectations and acceptability of the meat. Attitudes and beliefs towards castration and immunocastration were also evaluated. The study was carried out in Madrid and Barcelona, where consumers (n = 252) evaluated meat from the five sex types in blind and informed conditions. Results showed that consumers could be classified into three groups as “Indifferent”, “Against castration and immunocastration” and “Against immunocastration”. Meat from castrated males had higher overall liking scores than the other types of meat. Information provided to the consumers, together with their expectations, affects the overall liking scores. Thus, this needs to be considered to determine the best marketing strategy according to the type of pork produced.A common practice in Iberian pigs is the castration of both males and females, and it can be carried out surgically or by immunization against gonadotropin-releasing factor (GnRF). The aim of this work was to determine consumers’ overall liking and expectations towards Iberian pork from five different sex types (castrated females, entire females, GnRF-vaccinated females, castrated males and GnRF-vaccinated males), as well as to know the attitudes and beliefs of consumers towards castration and immunocastration. Loins from 83 Iberian pigs were collected and evaluated by 252 consumers in Barcelona and Madrid. Consumers evaluated the five types of meat in three situations: blind condition (tasting the product), expectations (without tasting) and informed condition. Finally, attitudes and beliefs towards castration and immunocastration were also determined. Results distinguished three segments of consumers labeled as “Indifferent”, “Against castration and immunocastration” and “Against immunocastration”. Meat from castrated males had higher overall liking scores in the blind condition. Expectations towards pork depending on its sex type affect consumer-informed acceptability; thus, it is important to consider marketing strategies to avoid or direct the effect of the information provided on the acceptability of the pork.