Cultural uncertainty avoidance predicts consumers' affective reactions to chemicals

Chemicals in general often evoke negative emotions (e.g., worry or fear) in consumers. This can cause consumers to avoid beneficial products and may even lead to suboptimal public policy decisions. It is, therefore, important to better understand how affective reactions to chemicals in general (ARC) form in order to be able to counteract these undesirable effects. The present research contributes to the literature on ARC by studying between-country differences in ARC. While ARC were negative in all countries in our dataset, there were practically relevant between-country differences in how negative they were. We predicted and found that consumers in higher uncertainty avoidance (UA) societies reported more negative ARC than their counterparts in lower UA societies. This effect was due to the rule orientation component rather than the anxiety component of UA. Importantly, while we found evidence for several alternative explanations for between-country variation in ARC (i.e., differences in affluence, individualism, prevalence of chemicals, and trust in consumer protection), the UA effect remained statistically significant when we controlled for other country characteristics. The present research contributes to a better understanding of how contextual factors on the society level influence consumers' ARC and in doing so advances our understanding of ARC. It also has implications for practitioners who wish to educate consumers on the risks and benefits of chemicals.