FOOD PREFERENCES IN DAILY-LIFE - COGNITIVE, AFFECTIVE AND SOCIAL PREDICTORS

Based on prior research showing that a food cognition model employing the evaluative dimensions of pleasure/taste, health and convenience co uld significantly predict preferences for a representative list of hyp othetical meals, the present study demonstrates that the model can eff ectively predict preferences for recent meals actually consumed. A tot al of 269 males (N = 122) and females (N = 147), ranging in age from 1 4 to 83 years, each evaluated three of their recent meals. Regression analysis yielded significant results very similar to those obtained fo r the hypothetical meals. Substantial differences were also found betw een the evaluations of morning, midday and evening meals: the health a nd convenience criteria are most heavily weighted for morning meals, w hereas general ''liking'' is most heavily weighted for midday and even ing meals. Additional results showed that the predictive ability of th e model can be marginally improved by including a cost factor. Newly d esigned measures of the idiosyncratic meanings associated with particu lar meals contributed in some instances to the prediction of preferenc es but did not generally yield consistent results.