Food determinants and motivation factors impact on consumer behavior in Lebanon

1 Introduction

Numerous studies have been carried out on the effects of social and cultural factors on eating habits in different populations [1]. There is strong evidence that the kind, quantity, and intake of food are significantly influenced by social norms [2]. A balanced diet can improve dietary practices and overall population health. The scientific literature has used a variety of variables to study consumer behavior in the food market, with sociodemographic characteristics, motives and attitudes, religious characteristics, cultural and social background, regional variability, and lifestyle being the most frequently used ones [3,4].

Unfortunately, the majority of customers are either uninformed of or uninterested in reading food labels, depending on their social and cultural backgrounds [5]. Many questions about what people believe about healthy eating remain unresolved. Although customers’ main objective is to satisfy the demand for basic food commodities, their conduct nowadays is different [6]. The way that modern consumers act toward food has been impacted by changes in their socioeconomic priorities.

Education and emotional eating both significantly influence the choice of food products [7]. Like many other nations, Lebanon encourages healthy eating practices. To do this, it is important to investigate and create sociodemographic, cultural, economic, emotional, and environmental factors as well as some distinct characteristics that motivate healthy eating [8].

This knowledge gap must be filled in order to develop comprehensive methods that support and reinforce the consumption of healthy foods, particularly with regard to how various aspects of food motivation and knowledge affect consumer behavior.

This study sought to evaluate Lebanese people’s motivations for healthy eating as well as demographic information and elements related to eating habits as a first step in creating health policies and techniques to encourage nutritional behavior. This groundbreaking study from Lebanon is a component of a global effort named “Psycho-social reasons associated with food choices and eating behaviors (EATMOT).”

In the current study, two research questions were addressed:

RQ1: what are the sociodemographic factors that could influence eating motivations in Lebanon? Do age, gender, living environment, level of studies, responsibility in buying food, civil status, and current employment affect eating motivation?

RQ2: what is the impact of motivation food factors and sociodemographic on consumer behavior model?

The article is organized as follows: The theoretical background (Section 2) is followed by the explanation of the methods and materials used in Section 3; Section 4 presents the research findings. The results of the study, its theoretical and practical implications, and potential directions for future research will be covered by the authors in Sections 5 and 6.

2 Theoretical background

Local government policy has recently concentrated on acknowledging the potential advantages of traditional and regional food systems and encouraging local food [9]. Despite the enthusiasm of consumers, producers, and policymakers for the benefits of locally grown and traditionally prepared foods, marketing systems continue to outperform labor force survey in terms of economies of scale, profit agglomeration, and negotiating power [10].

The consumer’s preference for local foods and their perceptions about the origin of the food items they eat have been reported by Feldmann and Hamm [11] in their published review. The Alphabet Theory is a newly developed theoretical framework aimed at representing the relations and attitudes of consumers towards alternative food choices. It has been reported that in the last two decades there has been a great boom in the consumer’s interest for local foods, which has led to a corresponding increase in the investigations focusing on consumers’ attitudes and purchase behavior concerning the local foods. Research has demonstrated that people believe that local foods are not expensive and are willing to buy them, even if they are a little more expensive compared to their non-local equivalents, because they perceive other values in local foods.

The review by Monaco and Bonetto [12] highlights the research works that have been focusing on the social representations of food, which have been highly studied and reported in the scientific literature. In fact, besides the individual’s relations with food, there are also very relevant social and group determinants of food consumption. The social representations encompass structured sets of ideas, opinions, knowledge, and beliefs about food which are shared among a group of people, constituting a social group. For that reason, to investigate these relations and even explore how they vary according to social influences, or even countries, is essential to understand the eating motivations. According to the authors [12], food social representations and culture can be investigated from three perspectives: (a) focusing on the role that social representations have in the construction of connotations attached to food and their incorporation into the thinking frameworks, either individual or group, shaping the role of culture to the representations; (b) addressing the way by which the charring of social representations can allow the identification with and the sense of belonging to a certain group; and (c) looking at social representations as determinants and predictors of consumer behavior.

The Theory of Planned Behavior is one of the tools that uses social–psychological–attitude models to express relationships between attitudes and behavior [13]. This can be further enhanced by adding measures of moral concern, which have been proven relevant for some food consumption decisions.

With respect to social customs and culture, Lebanon is a multiracial nation home to a wide variety of religions and worldviews. Each ethnicity and religion also have its own set of social customs and dietary habits. Hoek et al. [14] found that a person’s religious beliefs affected their attitudes about and behavior as consumers when it came to food preferences, food purchasing decisions, and eating routines. Muslim customers expect wholesome, premium goods that also adhere to Shariah requirements, just like any other kind of customer [15]. Without a doubt, religion has a big role on the cuisine of many nations. With the exception of Christianity, which has no such prohibitions, certain religions exclude specific foods, such as pork and meat that has not been ritually sacrificed in Judaism and Islam. According to estimates, just 16% of Jews, 75% of Muslims, and 90% of Buddhists and Hindus in the United States faithfully follow their religious dietary rules [16].

The way demographics, attitudes, and incentives affect how people purchase food has been investigated. Numerous studies have stressed the importance of the social aspect of consumer behavior and the need for consumers to satisfy both psychosocial and utilitarian needs [17,18]. Since price, convenience, and quality are still important factors in economic motivation, consumer motivations are not necessarily unique in this environment [19], but a social component might be important.

The current study’s goal is to fill the aforementioned research gaps by first examining Lebanese people’s motivations for healthy eating in relation to food, and then looking at how demographic data (such as living conditions, gender, educational attainment, and age groups), elements related to eating habits, and consumer acceptance can affect consumers’ purchase intentions. Our ultimate objective pertains to purchase intention of nutritious food in developing health policies and methods to promote dietary behavior.

Individual food patterns are influenced by a great diversity of social, psychological, sensory, and economic factors [20], as described by a number of theoretical models. The environmental determinants of diet are considerably variable across regions or countries [20–25]. Also the age or sex have been pointed out in many investigations as greatly determining food choices [26–29], with preferences variable according to their own perceptions of any common food item.

3 Materials and methods

4 Results

4.1 Sample characterization

The demographical data for the sample studied are summarized in Figures 1 and 2, highlighting the highest percentages for each demographical variable. There were 410 people who participated in the poll, and of those, 74.1% were female and 25.9% were male. The age range of the participants was from 18 to 72 years, with a median age of 37. They were divided into four age groups: young adults (18–30 years old), which made up 32.4%; average adults (31–50 years old), which made up 57.3%; senior adults (51–64 years old), which made up 8.3%; and finally, the elderly (more than 65 years old), which made up 2% of the sample. A significant portion of the participants – nearly 95% – had a university degree. The participants’ marital status was as follows: 40% were single, 56.8% were married or cohabiting, 2.7% were divorced or separated, and 0.5% were widowed. Regarding the participants’ living situations, 30% of them resided in urban areas, 15.1% in rural areas, and 54.9% in suburban areas (Figure 1). Regarding the current professional activity, most participants (68%) were employed. The remaining participants (13.2%) were students, 2.7% were working students, 14.4% were unemployed, and 1.7% were retirees. Another inquiry concerned the participant’s professional endeavors or academic pursuits, particularly those pertaining to certain sectors, such as food, nutrition, agriculture, sports, psychology, or other health-related pursuits. Regarding this, 70.2% of respondents indicated that none of the aforementioned professional fields applied to them (Figure 2). Finally, 75.1% of participants were found to be in charge of making their own food purchases.

Figure 1

Demographical data: age, gender, highest level of education, living environment, civil state.

Figure 2

Demographical data: job situation, professional area.

4.3 Results for RQ2

In order to respond to this second research question, we performed a regression analysis on two different models, the first of which considered the influence of the six-food motivator on habit and consumer food behavior.

The second model takes into account the effects of the previous sociodemographic variables on dietary habits and consumer behavior.

4.3.1 Model one

For the impact and relationship of motivation food factors on consumer behavior a model was tested in this research with, a Pearson correlation test between these motivations and a multiple regression was conducted; the results of first model (Figure 3) are reported in Table 9 and showed that Lebanese population has the highest level for the healthy diet behavior and attitude followed by the environmental and political motivation, whereas the social and cultural motivation has the lowest mean (Table 10).

Figure 3

Impact of motivation food factors and consumer behavior model.

Table 9

Summary of findings related to sociodemographic differences

Variables	Healthy motivation	Emotional motivation	Economic and availability motivation	Environmental and political motivation	Social and cultural motivation	Marketing and commercial motivation
Age	Significant difference	Significant difference				Significant difference
Highest education level	Significant difference
Living environment	Significant difference
Civil state	Significant difference	Significant difference			Significant difference
Present professional	Significant difference		Significant difference	Significant difference	Significant difference	Significant difference
Gender			Significant difference
Responsibility for buying food

Table 10

Correlations between the sociodemographic variables

	Healthy motivation	Emotional motivation	Economic and availability motivation	Environmental and political motivation	Social and cultural motivation	Marketing and commercial motivation
Healthy motivation	1
Emotional motivation	0.108*	1
Economic and availability motivation	0.111*	0.152**	1
Environmental and political motivation	0.261**	0.063	0.049	1
Social and cultural motivation for food	0.165**	0.241**	0.378**	0.112*	1
Marketing and commercial motivation for food	0.088	0.252**	0.363**	0.136**	0.307**	1

*Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed). **Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).

Furthermore, a multiple regression was run, and the multiple correlation coefficient R can be considered to be one measure of the quality of the prediction of the dependent variable healthy diet behavior and attitude. Its value of 0.373 indicates a good level of prediction. The coefficient of determination R ², which is the proportion of variance in the dependent variable that can be explained by the independent variables has a value of 0.139 that our independent variables explain 13.9% of the variability of our dependent variable (Tables 11 and 12).

Table 11

Summary for model one

R a	R 2	Adjusted R 2	Std. error of the estimate
0.373	0.139	0.126	0.823

^aPredictors: (Constant), healthy motivation, marketing and commercial motivation for food, emotional motivation, environmental and political motivation, social and cultural motivation for food, economic and availability motivation.

Table 12

ANOVA for model one (dependent variable: healthy diet behavior and attitude)

Modela	Sum of squares	df	Mean square	F	Sig.
Regression	43.950	6	7.325	10.828	0.000
Residual	272.638	403	0.677
Total	316.588	409

^aPredictors: (Constant), healthy motivation, marketing and commercial motivation for food, emotional motivation, environmental and political motivation, social and cultural motivation for food, economic and availability motivation.

The F-ratio in the ANOVA table tests whether the overall regression model is a good fit of the data, which is the case in our model since we have that the independent variables statistically significantly predict the dependent variable, F(6, 403) = 10.828, p < 0.0005.

A multiple regression was run to predict healthy diet behavior and attitude from the six food motivation factors. These variables statistically significantly predicted Lebanese food behavior and attitude, F(6, 403) = 10.828, p < 0.0005, R ² = 0.139. Four variables marketing and commercial motivation for food, social and cultural motivation for food, environmental and political motivation, and economic and availability motivation did not add statistically significantly to the prediction, p < 0.05; whereas, emotional motivation and healthy motivation variable add statistically significantly to the prediction model (Table 13).

Table 13

Coefficients for model one (dependent variable: healthy diet behavior and attitude)

Model	Unstandardized coefficients		Standardized coefficients	t	Sig.
	B	Std. error	Beta
(Constant)	1.214	0.309		3.924	0.000
Marketing and commercial motivation	0.030	0.057	0.027	0.528	0.598
Social and cultural motivation	0.082	0.058	0.074	1.421	0.156
Environmental and political motivation	0.001	0.052	0.001	0.021	0.983
Economic and availability motivation	0.051	0.055	0.049	0.937	0.349
Emotional motivation	0.170	0.043	0.193	3.964	0.000
Healthy motivation	0.323	0.066	0.237	4.883	0.000

The general form of the equation to predict healthy diet behavior and attitude from food motivation factors in Lebanon is

(1) PHDBA = 1.214 + MCM ⁎ 0.03 + SCM ⁎ 0.082 + EPM ⁎ 0.001 + EAM ⁎ 0.051 + EM ⁎ 0.17 + HM ⁎ 0.323 ,

where PHDBAis the predicted healthy diet behavior and attitude, MCM is the marketing and commercial motivation, SCM is the social and cultural motivation, EPM is the environmental and political motivation, EAM is the economic and availability motivation, EM is the emotional motivation, and HM is the healthy motivation.

4.3.2 Model two

As for the sociodemographic variables that might influence habits and consumer food behavior, a second model was conceptualized and tested (Figure 4).

Figure 4

Impact of sociodemographic factors and consumer food behavior model.

A multiple regression was run to predict healthy diet behavior and attitude from the sociodemographic factors. These variables statistically significantly predicted Lebanese food behavior and attitude, F(8, 400) = 1.922, p < 0.0005, R ² = 0.037. All sociodemographic variables are not statistically significant to the prediction, p < 0.05 (Tables 14 and 15).

Table 14

Summary for model two

R a	R 2	Adjusted R 2	Std. error of the estimate
0.192	0.037	0.018	0.870

^aPredictors: (Constant) Are you responsible for buying the food you eat? living environment; highest education level completed; professional activity/studies related to any of the following areas; gender; present professional activity; age; civil state.

Table 15

ANOVA for model two (dependent variable: healthy diet behavior and attitude)

Modela	Sum of squares	df	Mean square	F	Sig.
Regression	11.644	8	1.455	1.922	0.055
Residual	302.889	400	0.757
Total	314.533	408

^aPredictors: (Constant) Are you responsible for buying the food you eat? living environment; highest education level completed; professional activity/studies related to any of the following areas; gender; present professional activity; age; civil state.

The general form of the equation to predict healthy diet behavior and attitude from Lebanese sociodemographic variable is

(2) PHDBA = 3.231 + AG ⁎ 0.032 − GD ⁎ 0.155 − HELC ⁎ 0.053 + LE ⁎ 0.025 + CS ⁎ 0.059 + PPA ⁎ 0.065 + APA ⁎ 0.01 − RBF ⁎ 0.287 ,

where PHDBA is the predicted healthy diet behavior and attitude, AG is the age, GD is the gender, HELC is the highest education level completed, LE is the living environment, CS is the civil state, PPA is the present professional activity, APA is the area of professional activity, and RBF is the responsibility to buy food (Table 16).

Table 16

Coefficients for model two (dependent variable: healthy diet behavior and attitude)

Model	Unstandardized coefficients		Standardized coefficients	t	Sig.
	B	Std. error	Beta
(Constant)	3.231	0.285		11.332	0.000
1. Age	0.032	0.088	0.024	0.368	0.713
2. Gender	−0.155	0.102	−0.078	−1.529	0.127
3. Highest education level completed	−0.053	0.105	−0.025	−0.506	0.613
5. Living environment	0.025	0.060	0.021	0.415	0.678
6. Civil state	0.059	0.112	0.038	0.525	0.600
7. Present professional activity	0.065	0.049	0.071	1.333	0.183
8. Professional activity	0.010	0.025	0.019	0.391	0.696
9. Responsibility for buying the food you eat	−0.287	0.112	−0.141	−2.552	0.011

5 Discussion

These findings are not unexpected because people’s eating choices tend to be heavily influenced by their level of health [32]. Consumers are more aware of the environmental effects of their meals and the significance of adopting diets that are more sustainable from an environmental point of view in addition to health motivations [33].

When it comes to the gender differences, the findings of the T-test revealed that, with the exception of social and cultural reasons (p = 0.21), differences between genders were statistically significant for practically every type of incentive. Nevertheless, because the average scores for both men and women were always lower than 1.5, none of the motivational factors that were taken into consideration had much of an impact on how they chose to eat. These findings are consistent with an earlier study that discovered that women tend to have stronger positive motives for eating a healthy diet because they are generally more concerned with controlling their diet, weight, and health [34].

As for the age variable, in late adulthood, age is a significant factor in society and has a negative impact on people’s health and wellbeing. The impacts of ageism on older people have been the subject of much research, particularly in relation to the treatment they receive from the medical system and the contacts they have at work [35]. There is evidence that one’s thoughts toward aging can have a significant impact on one’s health and wellbeing. Negative views of aging and outdated preconceptions are linked to memory problems [36], poor physical and mental functioning [37], and lower cardiovascular health [38]. Ageing is a dynamic process; people change from one category to another as they live – from young adulthood to middle adulthood to elder adulthood. This contrasts with other stigmatized identities and societal categories (such as race, gender, and sexual orientation). People of all ages likely come across fresh knowledge and experiences that cause them to re-evaluate how they feel about older people and aging. However, there is no evidence of age variations in attitudes and behaviors related to food. The current study filled this gap by analyzing cross-sectional age differences in food motives and demonstrating the divergent attitudes about food consumption between older and younger persons.

As for the environmental variables, they may be outweighing those of commodity or even price due to increased awareness of the effects of climate change and pollution, as people place value on intangible benefits related to the preservation of the natural biosystems.

The ability to respond intelligently to questions and possess sufficient knowledge does not always mean that one uses that knowledge in daily interactions. Participants in a study had adequate nutrition knowledge, but social and physical contextual factors had a significant impact on eating behavior [39]. The role of social media in spreading information about healthy eating and promoting healthy food choices is highlighted by Mete et al. [40].

Overall, the findings supported the fact that Lebanese citizens were sufficiently informed about some nutritional components of their diets and were not influenced by marketing campaigns or other influencing factors. These findings are conformed to the findings of Boustani et al. [41], where Lebanese people are becoming more aware of what they consume and the implications that a proper diet can have for their health. Consequently, they had beliefs that were consistent with a balanced diet.

These findings are crucial because they can help determine how people view healthy eating concerns, which is essential for promoting and putting into practice plans meant to encourage healthier eating patterns among Lebanese people. Moreover, these findings can help in conducting different communication tools for increasing the knowledge about healthy food consumption and positively changing in food habits behavior, specifically for the fact that the habit of checking food labels is not current for Lebanese citizens [42].

This work further showed some of the factors that strongly influence the participants’ eating habits, such as politics, the environment, and health. The fact that consumers are aware of the role of food choice over the environment allows to put into practice programs that help raise awareness of these aspects, including sustainable food choices. As a result, the sustainability and environmental aspects could be thoroughly investigated in other future studies. According to Boustani et al. [41], the subjective norm, which reflects the influence of others, was found to be significantly connected with the frequency of consumption of popular goods like organic products and to have a strong correlation with the intention to purchase organic food. As a result, in future work, the authors would take into account the consumption of organic food or even cultural and ethnic foods that are not typically eaten in Lebanon.

Future research ideas include expanding the sample size and even including additional neighboring nations. The sample size of participants from varied origins and environments must be raised in any subsequent study, though. As a result, this study may provide a fair representation of a variety of consumer behaviors across the entire Lebanese nation.

Furthermore, a study by Mete et al. [40] found that price was the primary factor in Portuguese and Greek consumers’ food selection decisions. Given that the Lebanese population is currently experiencing multiple financial and economic crises, it is important to consider the cost of goods when making food purchases. Among the motivating elements, the economic considerations variable had the greatest correlation. It is a well-known fact that Lebanon has a high cost of living.

The study provides important insight into consumer behavior by examining the factors that influence consumers’ purchasing intentions for food. Future studies on the supply and demand of food may utilize the findings of this study as a springboard. On the other hand, more in-depth research on the relationship between consumer attitude and purchase intention may be conducted using qualitative techniques like focus groups or face-to-face interviews.

6 Conclusions

This study offered new perspectives on behavioral and perception elements associated with eating motivations, particularly those connected to health-related features and views of a good diet. In general, participants demonstrated correct attitudes toward a healthy diet, with substantial variations in the results according to gender, age group, living situation, and educational level. The participants who had to pay for their own food or not, as well as the groupings according to their employment status or field of expertise, on the other hand, varied significantly.

Our study found that the social environment has a significant impact on nutrition, which is a crucial factor in the development and maintenance of healthy eating behaviors. Examples include frequent dining out, a preference for trendy or fast food, lack of time for cooking when one is a young adult, etc. Therefore, creating healthy eating plans and promoting them are long-term benefits, particularly for young people’s eating habits.

This research also made it possible to pinpoint some of the factors, such as politics, the environment, and health that participants’ eating habits were most influenced by. These can be used to adopt and put into practice programs that help raise awareness of the value and role of recycling and the environment.

According to global estimates, low-income countries like Lebanon today, which struggle with multiple crises and high inflation rates, are more affected by changes in food prices. As a result, there is a clear need for information and understanding about consumer practices and attitudes regarding food in order to assess the results of marketing programs and the risks of population malnutrition.

In an effort to reduce the burden of disease on the population, it is important to take socioeconomic status into account when modifying eating habits among the general population. Strategically combining the promotion of high consumption of fresh fruits and vegetables with other approaches and using social marketing to obtain the health benefits are both important. A deeper comprehension of these tactics can aid the development of policies resulting in a balanced diet by the restaurant syndicates, ministry of tourism, and ministry of health.

One limitation is that the study is conducted in an environment where socioeconomic factors changed very fast and people’s eating habits needed time to adapt to the variation in the social status of certain citizens who might have lost their work due to Covid-19 or due to financial crisis or are simply unable to retrieve their savings from banks due to capital control.

The sample size might be increased in future studies, and even more surrounding countries could be included. Any further research, however, must include a larger sample size with participants from diverse backgrounds and environments. As a result, this study may offer a realistic depiction of the range of consumer habits found throughout the entire Lebanese country.

As for future work, the researchers intend to add to the Theory of Planned Conduct and to test the mediating or moderating role of moral concern indicators, which have been shown to be pertinent for particular food consumption choices.