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Consumers' food selection behaviors in three-dimensional (3D) virtual reality
Michael Siegrist1, Chin-Yih Ung1, Markus Zank2
1Department of Health Sciences and Technology, ETH Zurich, Switzerland.
Food Research International (Ottawa, Ont.)
|February 10, 2019
Summary
Virtual reality (VR) shopping experiments show similar consumer decisions and information processing as real-world scenarios. VR is a viable tool for studying food choices and consumer behavior.
Area of Science:
- Consumer Psychology
- Human-Computer Interaction
- Experimental Economics
Background:
- Virtual reality (VR) offers a novel environment for consumer behavior research.
- Understanding consumer decision-making in simulated retail settings is crucial.
Purpose of the Study:
- To compare consumer behavior and information processing in real versus virtual supermarket settings.
- To validate VR as a tool for consumer behavior experiments, particularly for food choices.
Main Methods:
- Study 1: Participants selected cereal from real and VR shelves; eye-tracking data collected.
- Study 2: Participants navigated a virtual supermarket, choosing healthy or hedonic cereals.
- Utilized eye-tracking to analyze information-seeking behaviors in both conditions.
Main Results:
- No significant differences in cereal selection between real and VR environments.
- Minor differences observed in information-seeking behavior via eye-tracking.
- Participants seeking healthy options focused more on nutritional information than those seeking hedonic options.
Conclusions:
- VR environments accurately simulate real-world supermarket shopping experiences for consumer behavior studies.
- VR is a validated and effective tool for conducting experiments on food decisions and consumer psychology.
- The findings support the use of immersive VR for ecological consumer research.