Understanding the role of social desirability bias and environmental attitudes and behaviour on South Australians’ stated purchase of organic foods

Abstract

Organic food purchase choices are a product of consumers’ concern about the environment, food safety and food quality, in addition to being influenced by socio-demographics, social pressures and identity. However, in addition to real-world social pressures, respondents to surveys that include questions on organic food purchases may often feel pressure to respond in a socially desirable way. In many survey contexts this means responding more positively to preferences regarding organic food choices or the frequency of purchase decisions. We explore two aspects of socially desirable reporting: (1) image management bias wherein respondents seek to please surveyors through attempting to select answers that may be considered more positively; and (2) self-deception bias wherein respondents unconsciously answer in a way that reflects how they would like to think they behave or will behave. Using an established measure of these social desirability biases, we present a structural equation model to assess the drivers of South Australian consumers’ self-reported organic food purchasing frequency (n = 1000). Results indicate that self-deception has a significant and substantive impact on reported organic food purchasing frequency. But, there was no evidence that image management bias directly or indirectly influences organic purchasing behaviour; confirming previous findings that people are motivated to purchase organic food primarily for unselfish reasons (e.g. environment and public good). Failure to account for self-deception bias generates considerable upward bias in estimated purchasing frequency, indicating the need for future organic purchasing surveys to control for social desirability bias.