Understanding consumers' perception and consumption motives towards amaranth in Mexico using the Pierre Bourdieu's theoretical concept of Habitus

Abstract

The aim of this work was to study, from a sociological approach, the perception and consumption motives of amaranth in Mexico using Pierre Bourdieu's theoretical concept of Habitus. A survey was conducted in Mexico City with 610 consumers. Socioeconomic information of gender, age, cultural and economic capitals as internal dispositions that generate social differentiation processes were collected. Consumers' perception was identified using an open question through which participants mentioned why they consider the consumption of amaranth to be good. Words, phrases or comments mentioned were grouped into categories through the lemmatization process, and analysed with Global, Per-Cell Chi Square tests and Correspondence Analysis. A Food Choice Questionnaire was used to identify consumption motives of amaranth through Exploratory Factor Analysis and Cluster analysis to identify groups of consumers according to their consumption motives. Results indicated eight categories that reflect consumers' perception towards amaranth (Health and well-being, Functionality, Mitigate hunger, Nutritional components, Nutrition, Feeding, Traditional food and Energy), which converge upon traditionality and functionality. Consumption motives were differentiated into “food as form” and “food as function”. Cluster analysis showed distinction in the perception and taste for amaranth. Gender, age, cultural capital and willingness to buy novel food products with added amaranth are markers that reflect internal dispositions of consumers according to their class adscription, and therefore represent their Habitus.