| Abstract: |
Many people would argue that food plays a major role in their well-being. It
is recognized that food experiences are embedded in a particular food culture
and are shaped by that culture's history, social norms, values and beliefs.
Eating, a multi-day act, plays an important role in achieving a good life and
food-related well-being (Diener et al., 2003; Ares et al., 2016). Based on the
Aristotelian philosophy of happiness, recent research considers two dimensions
of wellbeing (Stark et al., 2018; Kashdan et al., 2018). The hedonic dimension
focuses on the achievement of happiness and pleasure, and the eudaimonic
dimension emphasizes meaning and self-realization (Ryan & Deci, 2001). The
hedonic dimension of food has been the main focus of many researches due to
its impact on health and the effectiveness of public health claims. A hedonic
product provides an affective, multisensory, emotional experience (Hirschman &
Holbrook, 1982) leading to enjoyment and pleasure (Dhar & Wertenbroch, 2000).
Research has provided insights into how food consumption can lead to pleasure.
Cornila & Chandon (2016a) have identified visceral pleasure and epicurean
pleasure and consider that reducing the visceral one could contribute to
healthy eating, Batat et al. (2019) consider a more holistic view of the
experiential pleasure of food and have proposed that it could help shift
consumer behavior towards well-being. The eudaimonic dimension of food has
received less attention from researchers and a full understanding of the
eudaimonic dimension of food experience is still little explored due to the
lack of an agreed general theory, the usefulness of distinguishing it from the
hedonic dimension and the difficulty of measuring it (Mugel et al., 2019,
Kashdan et al., 2008). Based on the hedonic and eudaimonic dimensions of food
well-being, we highlight this major tension that can arise in food choices.
This paper analyses different ways in which consumers can manage pleasure and
the hedonic dimension of food consumption, while maintaining the eudaimonic
dimension of food in relation to individual fulfilment, health and
sustainability. We conducted a QCA analysis of the discourse of 34 consumers
of traditional foods that carry pleasure, health and ethical dimensions.
Results showed that in a holistic food consumption experience, the hedonic and
eudaimonic dimensions of food well-being were distinct and that consumers
might have been motivated by one, both, or neither. Based on these results, we
highlight different ways in which consumers can reduce the tension between
pleasure and ethics. |