The role of anticipated regret in predicting the consumption of fruit as snack among young people

Journal title PSICOLOGIA DELLA SALUTE
Author/s Luigina Canova, Andrea Bobbio, Anna Maria Manganelli
Publishing Year 2022 Issue 2022/1 Language Italian
Pages 23 P. 114-136 File size 288 KB
DOI 10.3280/PDS2022-001007
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The study explores the role of anticipated regret in the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB; Ajzen, 1991) applied to the consumption of fruit as snack. The hypothesized model extends the TPB with the inclusion of past behavior and anticipated regret. The main objectives are: a) to test whether anticipated regret improves the predictive power of TPB, even after considering past behavior; b) to analyze whether regret moderates the relationship between intention and behavior. The study was conducted in two phases, with a time leg of two weeks. In the first phase, the online structured questionnaire included measures of intention and its antecedents and items to detect past behavior and anticipated regret. In the second, the behavior of eating fresh fruit as snack in the previous two weeks was surveyed. A convenience sample of 361 Italian university students participated in the study. Results of the regression analyses proved that past behavior and anticipated regret improve the ability of the TPB to predict both inten-tion and future behavior. Furthermore, regret moderates the effect of intention on behavior, which is significant only when regret is high. In conclusion, the results support the importance of considering anticipated regret in predicting the intentions of implementing this healthy eat-ing behavior, and the usefulness of leveraging on this anticipated affect to reinforce the inten-tion-behavior link.

Keywords: theory of planned behavior, anticipated regret, past behavior, eating fruit as snack.

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Luigina Canova, Andrea Bobbio, Anna Maria Manganelli, Il ruolo del rimpianto anticipato nella previsione del consumo di frutta come snack tra i giovani in "PSICOLOGIA DELLA SALUTE" 1/2022, pp 114-136, DOI: 10.3280/PDS2022-001007