Attitudinal moderation of correlation between food liking and consumption

This paper focuses on the degree of correlation between food liking and con sumption and proposes the degree of correspondence between affective and co gnitive aspects of liking and consumption as moderators of this correlation . In a close-response questionnaire, 103 young females (average age of 20) indicated their liking for and consumption of 12 non-alcoholic cold beverag es, They also indicated their level of agreement with affective and cogniti ve statements associated with each beverage as well as the affective or cog nitive statement that was representative of their attitude toward each beve rage. Even though there are affective and cognitive bases of both liking an d consumption, the affective basis dominates liking whereas the cognitive b asis dominates consumption for most beverage categories. Separate analyses conducted at the level of individual subjects and of individual beverage ca tegories both revealed that those cases in which the attitude basis for lik ing and consumption showed the highest correspondence, also manifested the highest liking-consumption correlation. Results are discussed with regard t o health promotion and food marketing strategies. (C) 1999 Academic Press.