Table_2_Take it or leave it? Investigating the ambivalence and willingness to pay for suboptimal fruits and vegetables among organic consumers in Germany.docx

Organic fruits and vegetables are often visually “suboptimal” because organic farming uses neither pesticides nor synthetic fertilisers to improve the cosmetic appearance of the produce. Despite the organic sector's natural and sustainable image, such foods often never reach the market or are left on the shelf, greatly increasing food waste. The current work hypothesised that an important factor in the rejection of suboptimal food is consumers' experience of ambivalence regarding these products. Data were collected through an online survey of (occasional) organic consumers in Germany (n = 493), including an online mouse-tracking experiment. We investigated the interplay of ambivalence with environmental concerns and attitudes towards suboptimal food that influence people's willingness to pay (WTP) for suboptimal fruits and vegetables. Our findings suggest that environmentally concerned consumers have more favourable attitudes and experience less ambivalence towards suboptimal food. Only subjective ambivalence was found to be directly associated with consumers' WTP, however, while attitudes were not. Based on these results, we propose measures for policymakers and food retailers to reduce such ambivalence and thus increase organic consumers' acceptance for suboptimal food.

有机果蔬往往在外观上存在“次优性”，原因在于有机农业既不使用农药，也不施用人工合成肥料来改善农产品的外观品相。尽管有机食品行业秉持天然、可持续的形象，但这类果蔬往往无法进入市场，或是滞留在货架上，极大加剧了食物浪费。本研究提出假设：消费者对次优食品（suboptimal food）存在矛盾心理，这是导致其拒绝购买次优食品的重要因素。研究数据通过针对德国（偶尔）购买有机食品的消费者开展的线上调查收集，样本量为493份，调查同时包含一项线上鼠标追踪实验。本研究探讨了矛盾心理、环保关切以及对次优食品的态度三者之间的交互作用，这些因素会影响消费者为次优果蔬支付的意愿（WTP）。研究结果显示，具备环保关切的消费者对次优食品持有更积极的态度，且其矛盾心理程度更低。但仅有主观矛盾心理被发现与消费者的支付意愿直接相关，而对次优食品的态度则无此关联。基于上述研究结果，本研究为政策制定者与食品零售商提出了相关举措，以降低消费者的矛盾心理，进而提升有机食品消费者对次优食品的接受度。