Neuroscience meets food choice: Implicit and explicit consumer responses to plant-based vs animal-based foods

Understanding consumer acceptance of plant-based (PB) alternatives is essential for fostering sustainable dietary transitions. This study combined electroencephalography (EEG) and self-reported measures to examine implicit and explicit responses to PB alternatives versus animal-based (AB) traditional foods - belonging to meat, fish, and dairy food types-across visual, olfactory, and gustatory experimental phases. Thirty-six participants evaluated matched PB and AB foods while EEG indices of approach-withdrawal (AW) and mental workload (WL) were recorded. Results showed AB products globally received higher ratings for taste, familiarity, and purchase intention, whereas PBs were rated as more sustainable. From a neurophysiological point of view, tasting PB foods induced higher WL, which negatively correlated with liking and purchase intention, suggesting that greater cognitive effort reduced explicit acceptance. Conversely, AW positively correlated with tastiness, and purchase intention for PB alternatives and was also higher for AB products during the visual-olfactory presentation phase, reflecting greater familiarity. Psychographic traits modulated responses: a lifestyle of health and sustainability (LOHAS scores) was associated with more favorable PB ratings, although without corresponding EEG indices, while food neophobia was linked to increased WL and reduced AW across both PB and AB products, indicating lower cognitive engagement despite unchanged self-reports. By combining neuroscience and behavioral measures, this multi-method approach offers novel insights into consumers' perceptions of plant-based foods. Findings emphasize the dual roles of cognitive effort and approach motivation in food evaluations and highlight practical implications for developing and marketing plant-based products aligned with consumer expectations.