The effect of fat content on visual attention and choice of red meat and differences across gender Marija Banovic ´ a,⇑ , Polymeros Chrysochou a,b , Klaus G. Grunert a , Pedro J. Rosa c,d,e,f , Pedro Gamito c,d a MAPP Centre, Department of Management, Aarhus University, Denmark b Ehrenberg - Bass Institute for Marketing Science, School of Marketing, University of South Australia, Australia c COPELABS – Cognition and People-centric Computing Laboratories, Lisbon, Portugal d Faculty of Psychology, University Lusófona of Humanities and Technologies, Portugal e Instituto Universitário de Lisboa (ISCTE-IUL), Cis-IUL, Lisbon, Portugal f GIINCO – Grupo Internacional de Investigación Neuro-Conductual, Barranquilla, Colombia article info Article history: Received 16 September 2015 Received in revised form 29 March 2016 Accepted 29 March 2016 Available online 30 March 2016 Keywords: Visual attention Choice Fat content Red meat Gender abstract In this paper we study the effect of fat content on visual attention and choice of red meat, as well as dif- ferences across gender. In an eye-tracking study, conducted with 105 Portuguese meat consumers, we find that fat content has an impact on visual attention, choice reaction time and choice of red meat prod- ucts. Consumers pay more attention and choose more often meat products with lower fat content. This impact is further gender specific, with female consumers paying more attention and requiring less time to choose meat products with lower fat content. In contract, male consumers pay more attention to red meat products with higher fat content, but spend more time to choose red meat products with lower fat content. We discuss managerial and theoretical implications in relation to marketing of red meat products. Ó 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Previous research on consumer decision-making with regard to red meat has shown that the amount and type of visual fat is a major factor in consumer choice (Banovic ´ , Fontes, Barreira, & Grunert, 2012; Banovic ´ , Grunert, Barreira, & Fontes, 2009, 2010; Brunsø, Bredahl, Grunert, & Scholderer, 2005; Grunert, 1997, 2006; Grunert, Bredahl, & Brunsø, 2004). While these studies mea- sure consumer response to fat content of red meat, it is not clear whether the impact of fat content on choice is due to consumers paying more attention to a meat product depending on the level and type of fat. Previous research has also shown that consumer preferences and perceptions toward fat content in red meat prod- ucts depend on certain factors, such as product familiarity (Banovic ´ et al., 2012; Bredahl, 2004), health concerns (Van Wezemael, Verbeke, de Barcellos, Scholderer, & Perez-Cueto, 2010), sensory appeal (Brunsø et al., 2005; Grunert, 1997), as well as demograph- ics, such as age (Quagrainie, Unterschultz, & Veeman, 1998; Russell & Cox, 2004) and gender (Kiefer, Rathmanner, & Kunze, 2005; Kubberød, Ueland, Rødbotten, Westad, & Risvik, 2002; Ueland, 2007; Wardle et al., 2004). Among these factors gender has been found to have a significant effect on visual attention and choice (Bayliss, Pellegrino, & Tipper, 2005; Feng, Spence, & Pratt, 2007; Shen & Itti, 2012). It is therefore interesting to see whether male and female consumers differ in their visual attention to fat content, and if this difference explains variation in their choices. Consumer visual attention and choice is further influenced by top-down processes (Pieters & Warlop, 1999; Wedel & Pieters, 2008) and may vary depending on consumers’ goals, such as health or taste (Bialkova & van Trijp, 2010, 2011). Therefore, if during a choice task a goal is not specified, there is a risk of increasing vari- ation in consumers’ visual attention patterns and choices, depend- ing on which goal was more salient to them (e.g. health or taste). Previous studies have shown that health is a major drive behind consumer perceptions of fat content in red meat products (Banovic ´ et al., 2009; Brunsø et al., 2005; Grunert, 1997). In addi- tion, product evaluations strongly depend on the compatibility between product attributes and choice task (Chernev, 2004; Nowlis & Simonson, 1997). Therefore, in order to minimize varia- tion in consumer visual patterns that could occur due to the vary- ing background goals, we have decided to specify the choice task to a health choice task. In this paper we study the impact of fat content on consumer visual attention and choice of red meat products. We further inves- tigate if this impact differs between male and female consumers. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.foodqual.2016.03.017 0950-3293/Ó 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. ⇑ Corresponding author. E-mail address: maba@mgmt.au.dk (M. Banovic ´). Food Quality and Preference 52 (2016) 42–51 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Food Quality and Preference journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/foodqual