Examining public perceptions of cultivated meat in Singapore: food neophobia and neophilia as precursors to the influence of presumed media influence model

ABSTRACT

This study examines how individuals’ prior beliefs (i.e. food neophilia and food neophobia) serve as precursors to the influence of the presumed media influence model in shaping their perceptions of cultivated meat. An online survey of 1031 Singapore residents revealed that food neophobia and food neophilia are positively related to individuals’ media attention to risk and benefit messages about cultivated meat, respectively. Furthermore, individuals’ media attention to these risk and benefit messages about cultivated meat was positively related to their presumed influence of such messages on others, which subsequently affected their own attitudes and perceived social norms regarding the consumption of cultivated meat. Lastly, individuals’ own attitudes and perceived social norms were found to be positively associated with their intentions to consume cultivated meat. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• Influence of presumed media influence
• Cultivated meat
• Selective exposure
• Food neophilia
• Food neophobia

Acknowledgement

We would like to express our gratitude to Dr. Wang Jue for providing her invaluable feedback that significantly improved the survey instrument and manuscript draft. We also wish to thank Dr. Larry Loo for his valuable suggestions and comments that greatly enhanced our survey.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 We searched online news articles on cultivated meat published in The Straits Times using the keywords ‘cultivated meat’ on LexisNexis. 53 online news articles published by this media outlet between 2019 and 2023 were retrieved. Two coders, who were researchers for this study, independently coded the benefits and risks of cultivated meat mentioned within the articles. The two coders achieved acceptable averaged intercoder reliability for benefits (Krippendorff’s alpha _benefits = .815) and risks of cultivated meat (Krippendorff’s alpha _risks = .829).

2 The demographics of the sample reflected age, gender, and ethnicity distribution of Singapore population in 2022.

Additional information

Funding

This study was supported by Ministry of Education - Singapore Academic Research Fund Tier 1 Grant [grant number: RT16/20].

Notes on contributors

Shirley S. Ho

Shirley S. Ho (PhD, University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA) is President's Chair Professor in Communication Studies in the Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information, as well as the Associate Vice President (Humanities, Social Sciences, & Research Communication) in the President's Office at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. Her research focuses on science communication, in which she investigates cross-cultural public opinion dynamics related to science and technology, with potential health or environmental impacts. She is an elected fellow of the International Communication Association.

Mengxue Ou

Mengxue Ou (M.A., Nanyang Technological University, Singapore) is currently a Ph.D. candidate in the Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. Her research focuses on science and health communication, with a particular interest in investigating how individuals process misinformation in the context of emerging controversial scientific issues.

Zhing Ting Ong

Zhing Ting Ong (Undergraduate Student, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore). Her reseach interests include media effects and public policy.