Are religious orientations effective on eating motivation?

Year 2025, Volume: 10 Issue: 1, 49 - 63

Merve Uçkan Çakır , Şenol Çavuş

https://doi.org/10.31822/jomat.2025-10-1-49

Abstract

The phenomenon of food consumption has evolved over time, influenced by social interactions, leading to diverse nutritional practices based on beliefs, politics, culture, and economic foundations. This research aims to determine eating motivations and reveal the effects of religious orientations on these motivations. The convenience sampling method, a non-probability sampling method among quantitative research sampling methods, was used in the study. Van province was chosen as the population of the research, and individuals living in the central districts of Van province (İpekyolu and Tuşba), where the population density is high, were selected as the sample. Since the eating motivations scale was applied for the first time in the Van population, exploratory factor analysis was performed. In this context, a 3-dimensional religious orientations scale and a newly structured 10-dimensional eating motivations scale were reached. As a result of the research, it is seen that individuals' religious orientations explain their eating motivations at a rate of 10.5%. The most affected sub-dimension of eating motivation is taste and habits, with 14.2%; The second dimension is health and naturalness, with 11.8%; The third dimension is convenience, with 7.9%. It was concluded that the dimension that least explains the regression model is the price dimension with 1.7%. Analysis results showed that there was a significant relationship between individuals' religious orientations and eating motivations. The research analysis supported and accepted all hypotheses established in the research model.

Keywords

Gastronomy, Eating Motivation, Sociology of Food, Belief Sensitivities, Food Choices

Dini yönelimler yeme motivasyonu üzerinde etkili midir?

Abstract

Gıda tüketimi olgusu, sosyal etkileşimlerden etkilenerek zaman içinde evrilmiş ve inançlara, politikaya, kültüre ve ekonomik temellere dayalı farklı beslenme uygulamalarına yol açmıştır. Bu araştırma, yeme motivasyonlarını belirlemeyi ve dini yönelimlerin bu motivasyonlar üzerindeki etkilerini ortaya koymayı amaçlamaktadır. Araştırmada nicel araştırma örnekleme yöntemlerinden olasılıklı olmayan örnekleme yöntemlerinden kolayda örnekleme yöntemi kullanılmıştır. Araştırmanın evreni olarak Van ili, örneklemi olarak ise Van ilinin nüfus yoğunluğunun fazla olduğu merkez ilçelerinde (İpekyolu ve Tuşba) yaşayan bireyler seçilmiştir. Yeme motivasyonları ölçeği Van popülasyonunda ilk kez uygulandığı için keşfedici faktör analizi yapılmıştır. Bu kapsamda 3 boyutlu dini yönelimler ölçeği ve yeni yapılandırılmış 10 boyutlu yeme motivasyonları ölçeğine ulaşılmıştır. Araştırma sonucunda bireylerin dini yönelimlerinin yeme motivasyonlarını %10,5 oranında açıkladığı görülmüştür. Yeme motivasyonunun en çok etkilenen alt boyutu %14,2 ile lezzet ve alışkanlıklar; ikinci boyut %11,8 ile sağlık ve doğallık; üçüncü boyut ise %7,9 ile uygunluktur. Regresyon modelini en az açıklayan boyutun ise %1,7 ile fiyat boyutu olduğu sonucuna varılmıştır. Analiz sonuçları, bireylerin dini yönelimleri ile yeme motivasyonları arasında anlamlı bir ilişki olduğunu göstermiştir. Araştırma analizi, araştırma modelinde kurulan tüm hipotezleri desteklemiş ve kabul etmiştir.

Keywords

Gastronomi, Yeme motivasyonu, Gıda Sosyolojisi, Dini yönelimler, Yemek seçenekleri

References

• Albala, K., & Eden, T. (2011). Food & Faith in Christian Culture. Columbia University Press.
• Allport, G. W. (1950). The Individual and His Religion: A Psychological Interpretation. Macmillian, New York.
• Allport, G. W., & Ross, J. M. (1967). Personal Religious Orientation and Prejudice. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 5(4), 432.
• Altunışık, R., Coşkun, R., Bayraktaroğlu, S., & Yıldırım, E. (2012). Sosyal Bilimlerde Araştırma Yöntemleri: SPSS Uygulamalı. Sakarya: Sakarya Yayıncılık.
• Anderson, C. (1970). White Protestant Americans: From National Origins to Religious Group. Englewood Cliffs, Prentice Hall.
• Argyle, M. (2006). Religious Behaviour. Routledge.
• Armitage, C. J., & Conner, M. (2004). The effects of attitudinal ambivalence on attitude-intention-behavior relations. Contemporary Perspectives on the Psychology of Attitudes, 121-143.
• Asp, E. H. (1999). Factors affecting food decisions made by individual consumers. Food Policy, 24(2-3), 287-294.
• Bagozzi, R. P., & Yi, Y. (1988). On the evaluation of the structural equation models. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 16(1), 74-94.
• Bailey, J. M., & Sood, J. (1993). The effects of religious affiliation on consumer behavior: A preliminary investigation. Journal of Managerial Issues, 328-352.
• Barth, F. (1994). I gruppi etnici ei loro confini. In Maher, V. (a cura di), Questioni di etnicità, Rosenberg & Sellier, Torino.
• Beaver, J. D., Lawrence, A. D., Van Ditzhuijzen, J., Davis, M. H., Woods, A., & Calder, A. J. (2006). Individual differences in reward drive predict neural responses to images of food. Journal of Neuroscience, 26(19), 5160-5166.
• Bell, R., & Meiselman, H. (1995). The role of eating environments in determining food choice. In Food Choice and the Consumer, 292-310.
• Bellisle, F. (2005). Nutrition and health in France: Dissecting a paradox. Journal of the American Dietetic Association, 105(12), 1870-1873.
• Belzen, J. A., & Seyhan, B. Y. (2012). Din Psikolojisindeki Metodolojik Kaygılar: Değişmeyenler, Değişenler ve Dönüştürücü Perspektifler. Cumhuriyet Üniversitesi İlahiyat Fakültesi Dergisi, 16(1), 685-747.
• Berg, B. L., & Lune, H. (2017). Qualitative Research Methods for the Social Sciences. Pearson.
• Berridge, K. C. (1996). Food reward: Brain substrates of wanting and liking. Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews, 20, 1–25.
• Berridge, K. C. (2004). Motivation concepts in behavioral neuroscience. Physiology & Behavior, 81(2), 179-209.
• Beşirli, H. (2017). Yemek Sosyolojisi: Yiyeceklere ve Mutfağa Sosyolojik Bir Bakış. Phoenix.
• Birch, L. L. (1999). Development of food preferences. Annual Review of Nutrition, 19(1), 41-62.
• Blix, G. (2001). Religion, spirituality, and a vegetarian dietary. In Sabate, J. (Eds.), Vegetarian Nutrition, pp. 507–532. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press.
• Caplan, P., Keane, A., Willetts, A., & Williams, J. (1998). Studying food choice in its social and cultural contexts: Approaches from a social anthropological perspective. In Murcott, A. (Ed.), The Nation's Diet: The Social Science of Food Choice. London: Longman, 168-182.
• Cardello, A. (1996). Food choice, acceptance and consumption (pp. 239-263). In Meiselman, H. L. (Ed.), The contextual basis for food acceptance, food choice and food intake: The food, the situation and the individual. Springer, Boston.
• Conner, C. (2008). Culinary omnivorousness: The relationship between social class and food consumption patterns. M.Sc. Thesis in Applied Sociology, Clemson University. UMI Number: 1450769.
• Cooper, D., & Schindler, P. (2013). Business research methods (12th ed.). McGraw-Hill.
• Costello, A. B., & Osborne, J. (2005). Best practices in exploratory factor analysis: Four recommendations for getting the most from your analysis. Practical Assessment, Research & Evaluation, 10, 1–9.
• Delaney, M., & McCarthy, M. B. (2014). Saints, sinners and non-believers: The moral space of food. A qualitative exploration of beliefs and perspectives on healthy eating of Irish adults aged 50–70. Appetite, 73, 105-113.
• Delener, N. (1994). Religious contrasts in consumer decision behaviour patterns: Their dimensions and marketing implications. European Journal of Marketing, 28(5), 36-53.
• Devine, C. M. (2005). A life course perspective: Understanding food choices in time, social location, and history. Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior, 37(3), 121-128.
• Douglas, M. (2003). Purity and danger: An analysis of concepts of pollution and taboo. Routledge.
• Drenowski, A. (1992). Nutritional perspectives on biobehavioral models of dietary change. In K. K. DeRoos (Ed.), Promoting dietary change in communities (pp. 96–112). Washington: Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center.
• Dugan, B. (1994). Religion and food service. Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly, 35(6), 80-85.
• Duran, M. E. (2018). Din-korku ilişkisinin psikolojik olarak incelenmesi. Journal of Institute of Economic Development and Social Researches, 4(8), 84-87.
• Eertmans, A., Baeyens, F., & Van Den Bergh, O. (2001). Food likes and their relative importance in human eating behavior: Review and preliminary suggestions for health promotion. Health Education Research, 16(4), 443-456.
• Ergönül, B. (2013). Consumer awareness and perception to food safety: A consumer analysis. Food Control, 32(2), 461-471.
• Falk, L. W., Bisogni, C. A., & Sobal, J. (1996). Food choice processes of older adults. Journal of Nutrition Education, 28, 257–265.
• Feeley-Harnik, G. (1995). Religion and food: An anthropological perspective. Journal of the American Academy of Religion, 63(3), 565-582.
• Fernández-Armesto, F. (2002). Near a thousand tables: A history of food. Simon and Schuster.
• Fieldhouse, P. (2017). Food, feasts, and faith: An encyclopedia of food culture in world religions [2 volumes]. ABC-Clio.
• Finlayson, G., King, N., & Blundell, J. E. (2007). Liking vs. wanting food: Importance for human appetite control and weight regulation. Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews, 31, 987–1002.
• Geertz, C. (1973). The interpretation of cultures (Vol. 5019). Basic Books.
• Glanz, K., Basil, M., Maibach, E., Goldberg, J., & Snyder, D. A. N. (1998). Why Americans eat what they do: Taste, nutrition, cost, convenience, and weight control concerns as influences on food consumption. Journal of the American Dietetic Association, 98(10), 1118-1126.
• Grankvist, G., & Biel, A. (2001). The importance of beliefs and purchase criteria in the choice of eco-labeled food products. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 21(4), 405-410.
• Greeley, A. (1977). The American Catholic: A social portrait. Basic Books.
• Hair, J. F., Black, W. C., & Anderson, R. E. (2009). Multivariate data analysis (7th ed.). New York: Prentice Hall.
• Hair, J. F., Black, W. C., Babin, B. J., Anderson, R. E., & Tatham, R. L. (2006). Multivariate data analysis (Vol. 6). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall.
• Harris, M. (1995). The sacred cow. Cultural Anthropology. Harper Collins College Publishers, New York.
• Harris, M., & Ross, E. B. (1987). Food and evolution: Toward a theory of human food habits. Temple University Press.
• Heiman, A., Just, D. R., McWilliams, B., & Zilberman, D. (2001). Incorporating family interactions and socioeconomic variables into family production functions: The case of demand for meats. Agribusiness: An International Journal, 17(4), 455-468.
• Hinkin, T. R. (1998). A brief tutorial on the development of measures for use in survey questionnaires. Organizational Research Methods, 1, 104–121.
• Holm, L., & Kildevang, H. (1996). Consumers' views on food quality: A qualitative interview study. Appetite, 27(1), 1-14.
• Honkanen, P., & Frewer, L. (2009). Russian consumers’ motives for food choice. Appetite, 52(2), 363-371.
• Howard, M. C. (2016). A review of exploratory factor analysis decisions and overview of current practices: What we are doing and how can we improve? International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction, 32(1), 51-62.
• Jackson, B., Cooper, M. L., Mintz, L., & Albino, A. (2003). Motivations to eat: Scale development and validation. Journal of Research in Personality, 37(4), 297-318.
• Janas, B. G., Bisogni, C. A., & Campbell, C. C. (1993). Conceptual model for dietary change to lower serum cholesterol. Journal of Nutrition Education, 25(4), 186-192.
• Kahraman, A. (2018). Dinler tarihi. Marmara Üniversitesi İlahiyat Fakültesi Vakfı Yayınları.
• Kızılçelik, S. (1994). Sosyoloji teorileri. Yunus Emre Grafik Tasarım Yayıncılık.
• Kline, R. B. (2015). Principles and practice of structural equation modeling. Guilford Publications.
• Korkmaz, İ., & Dal, N. E. (2019). Milliyetçilik, dindarlık ve materyalizmin yerli ve yabancı ürünlerin satın alma (Nationalism, religiosity and materialism buying domestic and foreign products). İşletme Araştırmaları Dergisi, 11(3), 2094-2113.
• Land, B. (1998). Consumers dietary patterns and desires for change. Centre for Market Surveillance, Research and Strategy for the Food Sector. Aarhus, Denmark: Aarhus School of Business.
• Lau, D., Krondl, M., & Coleman, P. (1984). Psychological factors affecting food selection. In J. Galler (Ed.), Nutrition and behavior (pp. 397–415). New York: Plenum Press.
• Lenski, G. (1961). The religious factor. Doubleday.
• Lévi-Strauss, C. (1958). Anthropologie structurale (Vol. 171). Paris: Plon.
• McClure, S. M., Li, J., Tomlin, D., Cypert, K. S., Montague, L. M., & Montague, P. R. (2004). Neural correlates of behavioral preference for culturally familiar drinks. Neuron, 44(2), 379-387.
• Méndez-Montoya, A. F. (2012). The theology of food: Eating and the Eucharist. John Wiley & Sons.
• Mintz, S. W. (1982). Sweetness and power: The place of sugar in modern history. Viking Press.
• Mintz, S. W., & Du Bois, C. M. (2002). The anthropology of food and eating. Annual Review of Anthropology, 31(1), 99-119.
• Nunnally, J. C., & Bernstein, I. H. (1994). Psychometric theory (3rd ed.). McGraw-Hill.
• Nye, M. (2008). Religion: The basics (2nd ed.). Routledge.
• O'Dea, K. (1991). Traditional diet and food preferences of Australian Aboriginal hunter-gatherers. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B: Biological Sciences, 334(1270), 233-241.
• Onay, A. (2002). Dini yönelim ölçeği. İslamiyat Dergisi, 5(4), 181-192.
• Petersen, L. R., & Roy, A. (1985). Religiosity, anxiety, and meaning and purpose: Religion's consequences for psychological well-being. Review of Religious Research, 49-62.
• Pilcher, J. M. (2012). The Oxford handbook of food history. Oxford University Press.
• Rabe-Hesketh, S., Skrondal, A., & Pickles, A. (2003). Maximum likelihood estimation of generalized linear models with covariate measurement error. The Stata Journal, 3(4), 386-411.
• Rangel, A. (2013). Regulation of dietary choice by the decision-making circuitry. Nature Neuroscience, 16(12), 1717.
• Rani, D. U., Reddy, M. S., & Sreedevamma, M. (2003). Nutrition and religion. Discovery Publishing House.
• Rappaport, L., Peters, G., Huff-Corzine, L., & Downey, R. (1992). Reasons for eating: An exploratory cognitive analysis. Ecology of Food and Nutrition, 28, 171–189.
• Renner, B., Sproesser, G., Strohbach, S., & Schupp, H. T. (2012). Why we eat what we eat. The Eating Motivation Survey (TEMS). Appetite, 59(1), 117-128.
• Robinson, E., Aveyard, P., Daley, A., Jolly, K., Lewis, A., Lycett, D., & Higgs, S. (2013). Eating attentively: A systematic review and meta-analysis of the effect of food intake memory and awareness on eating. The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 97(4), 728-742.
• Rogers, P. J., & Blundell, J. E. (1990). Psychobiological bases of food choice. BNF Nutrition Bulletin, 15(Supplement 1), 31-40.
• Rozin, P. (2006). The integration of biological, social, cultural and psychological influences on food choice. Frontiers in Nutritional Science, 3, 19.
• Rozin, P. (2007). Food and eating. In S. Kitayama & D. Cohen (Eds.), Handbook of cultural psychology (pp. 391–416). Guilford Press.
• Rozin, P., & Tuorila, H. (1993). Simultaneous and temporal contextual influences on food acceptance. Food Quality and Preference, 4(1-2), 11-20.
• Sabate, J. (2004). Religion, diet and research. British Journal of Nutrition, 92(2), 199-201.
• Samuel, F., & Makhani, N. (2016). Food cultures. In Community nutrition for developing countries (pp. 47).
• Shepherd, D. (1985). Dietary salt intake. Nutrition & Food Science, 96, 10–11.
• Shepherd, R., & Farleigh, C. A. (1989). Sensory assessment of foods and the role of sensory attributes in determining food choice. In R. Shepherd (Ed.), Handbook of the psychophysiology of human eating (pp. 25–56). Wiley.
• Simopoulos, A. P. (2004). The traditional diet of Greece and cancer. European Journal of Cancer Prevention, 13(3), 219-230.
• Smarth, N. (2002). One God and others name in the word. Temple University Press.
• Sobal, J. (1998). Cultural comparison research designs in food, eating, and nutrition. Food Quality and Preference, 9, 385–392.
• Sobal, J., & Bisogni, C. A. (2009). Constructing food choice decisions. Annals of Behavioral Medicine, 38(suppl_1), S37–S46.
• Sproesser, G., Moraes, J. M. M., Renner, B., & Alvarenga, M. D. S. (2019). The Eating Motivation Survey in Brazil: Results from a sample of the general adult population. Frontiers in Psychology, 10, 2334.
• Steenkamp, J. B. E. (1993). Food consumption behavior. European Advances in Consumer Research, 1, 401-409.
• Steptoe, A., Pollard, T. M., & Wardle, J. (1995). Development of a measure of the motives underlying the selection of food: The Food Choice Questionnaire. Appetite, 25(3), 267-284.
• Subaşı, N. (2015). Türkiye'de din, dinî toplumsallıklar ve din sosyolojisi. Sosyoloji Konferansları, 52, 1-12.
• Sun, Y. H. C. (2008). Health concern, food choice motives, and attitudes toward healthy eating: The mediating role of food choice motives. Appetite, 51(1), 42-49.
• Teff, K. L., & Engelman, K. (1996). Palatability and dietary restraint: Effect on cephalic phase insulin release in women. Physiology & Behavior, 60(2), 567-573.
• Torjusen, H., Lieblein, G., Wandel, M., & Francis, C. A. (2001). Food system orientation and quality perception among consumers and producers of organic food in Hedmark County, Norway. Food Quality and Preference, 12(3), 207-216.
• TUIK. (2021). Van Province Address Based Population Registration System (2021). https://www.tuik.gov.tr (Accessed: May 24, 2021).
• Turner, V. (2018). Dramas, fields, and metaphors: Symbolic action in human society. Cornell University Press.
• Ünsal, A. (2020). İktidarların sofrası: Yemek, siyaset ve simgesellik. Everest Yayınları.
• Vermeir, I., & Verbeke, W. (2008). Sustainable food consumption among young adults in Belgium: Theory of planned behaviour and the role of confidence and values. Ecological Economics, 64(3), 542-553.
• Wandel, M., & Bugge, A. (1997). Environmental concern in consumer evaluation of food quality. Food Quality and Preference, 8(1), 19-26.
• Williams, B., Onsman, A., & Brown, T. (2010). Exploratory factor analysis: A five-step guide for novices. Australasian journal of paramedicine, 8, 1-13