Should I Buy Organic Food? A Psychological Perspective on Purchase Decisions - Organic Food and Agriculture: New Trends and Developments in the Social Sciences - page 40

making a decision. This research tradition has its roots in value and attitude psychology and
assumes that value orientations and attitudes are important determinants of people's
behaviour. Before analysing their impact on the purchase of organic food in more detail, the
three core concepts of this section shall be defined and distinguished from each other in the
first paragraph of each subsection.
2.1 Values
One of the most basic psychological concepts is a value . Schwartz (1994) defines values as
“ desirable transsituational goals, varying in importance, that serve as guiding principles in the life of
a person or other social entity (page 21)”. This definition outlines four important features that
characterize values: (a) they define what is morally desirable to achieve for a person, (b) they
are allocated on a very general level which makes them applicable across situation, (c) they
may vary in importance between different cultures, people or situations, and (d) they
motivate behaviour because they guide goal-setting and choice of action. Schwartz (1992)
furthermore suggested a categorization of ten basic value orientations (power, achievement,
hedonism, stimulation, self-direction, universalism, benevolence, conformity, tradition,
security) which has been widely adapted in cross-national studies as well as in various
behavioural domains.
Grunert and Juhl (1995) applied the Schwartz value inventory in a study on Danish school
teachers to determine the relation between basic value orientations, general environmental
attitudes and organic food consumption. They were able to show that value orientations
that fall into universalism were most characterizing for what they called “teachers with
green attitudes”, but also self-direction, stimulation and hedonism to a smaller degree. In a
second step they demonstrated that “green” teachers much more likely occasional or regular
buyers of organic food. Dreezens et al. (2005) used Schwartz' value system to analyse the
relation between beliefs about organic food, attitudes towards organic food and basic value
orientations. They found a positive relation between positive attitudes towards organic food
and universalism and a negative with power. Furthermore, they could show that this
relation is only indirect, mediated by beliefs about organic food (e.g., agreeing that organic
food is good for the environment, tastes better, is healthier, etc.). The effects were of a
moderate size. In a similar survey conducted with a population sample in Australia Lea and
Worsley (2005) found that self-transcendence values - especially personally valuing nature,
the environment and equality - were positively related to holding positive beliefs about
organic food. However, the relation found was fairly weak. In a Norwegian survey
Honkanen et al. (2006) found on the other hand a rather strong relation between the
ecological shade of ethical food choice motives and a positive attitude towards organic food
which eventually impacted the intention to buy organic food positively. Weak or no
relations were found between political motives or religious motives and pro-organic
attitudes.
In a qualitative study Makatouni (2002) analysed the value orientations that were relevant
for preferring a variety of organic produce over their conventionally produced counterparts
in a sample of British parents of 4-12 year old children. The most relevant value embraced
was preserving health of themselves and their families, but also protecting the environment
and animal welfare were values important to people that preferred organic food
alternatives. Health protection would fall under the security value in the Schwartz system,
animal welfare and protection of the environment would in Schwartz' understanding be