Food-related personality traits, food choice motives and food intake: Mediator and moderator relationships Audrey Eertmans a , An Victoir a , Greet Vansant b , Omer Van den Bergh a, * a Research Group for Stress, Health and Well-being, Department of Psychology, University of Leuven, Tiensestraat 102, B-3000 Leuven, Belgium b Department of Nutrition, University of Leuven, Herestraat 49, B-3000 Leuven, Belgium Received 30 November 2004; received in revised form 14 March 2005; accepted 24 April 2005 Available online 13 June 2005 Abstract We investigated the relationship between food-related personality traits, specific food choice motives and food intake. Typically, it is assumed that motives mediate the effect of traits on food intake. Motives may also have different effects on food intake, depend- ing on trait level (moderation). Undergraduate students (N = 324) completed the Food Involvement Scale and the Food Neophobia Scale measuring traits, and the Food Choice Questionnaire measuring specific motives. Daily food intake was assessed with a food frequency questionnaire two weeks later. General dietary healthfulness was based on its concordance with official recommendations. Regression analyses tested mediator and moderator relationships for each trait separately. The results partially support the medi- ation hypothesis: motives, such as Sensory Appeal and Health, mediated the effect of food involvement on intake of specific food categories. In addition, the relation of motives with both food intake and dietary healthfulness appeared to vary with level of food involvement or food neophobia (moderation). Implications to promote eating healthy food are discussed. Ó 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Keywords: Food neophobia; Food involvement; Motives; Food intake; Dietary healthfulness 1. Introduction Human food choice has been described as a complex process, including a multitude of influences (e.g., Furst, Connors, Bisogni, Sobal, & Falk, 1996). Determinants of food choice have been categorised as food-internal stimuli or food effects (e.g., sensory aspects of food) ver- sus food-external stimuli or non-food effects (e.g., cogni- tive information, the physical environment, social factors) (e.g., Bell & Meiselman, 1995; Eertmans, Baey- ens, & Van den Bergh, 2001; Rozin & Tuorila, 1993). A specific class of non-food factors lies in the individual making the food choice. These personal factors include individualsÕ dislikes and preferences, demographic vari- ables, food centeredness, and psychological and physio- logical needs and traits. One personality trait that has been specifically related to food choice is food neophobia. Pliner and Hobden (1992) defined it as the extent to which individuals are reluctant to try novel foods (food products, dishes, cui- sines). They found this reluctance to be negatively asso- ciated with Experience Seeking, a subscale of ZuckermanÕs (1979) Sensation Seeking Scale. In labora- tory studies of food choice, food neophobia predicted a willingness to taste familiar foods rather than novel foods from different food categories. Also, it was related to the frequency of eating and intake quantity, and to both anticipated and actual liking of the foods, but only for novel ones (Pliner & Hobden, 1992; Pliner, Lahteen- maki, & Tuorila, 1998). A similar negative relation be- tween food neophobia and self-reported everyday food 0950-3293/$ - see front matter Ó 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.foodqual.2005.04.007 * Corresponding author. Tel.: +32 16 32 60 58; fax: +32 16 32 60 55. E-mail address: omer.vandenbergh@psy.kuleuven.ac.be (O. Van den Bergh). www.elsevier.com/locate/foodqual Food Quality and Preference 16 (2005) 714–726