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Abstract

Disgust is a strong emotion influencing human behaviour in many domains, including food choices. For example, many western consumers are hesitant about eating insects. This is understandable as insects have been connected with the emotion of disgust. We conducted two design workshops to gain a better understanding of factors that can give rise to the emotion of disgust in the context of grasshoppers and explore alternative food design solutions. Based on the insights, we created four design fiction examples to illustrate how disgust can be an integral part of grasshopper consumption. We argue that changing the attitude of Europeans towards novel food items like grasshoppers requires exploring design strategies that neither solely focus on the sustainability benefits of insect consumption nor take disgust to be something that must be circumvented.

Funding
This study was supported by the:
  • ‘Pride & Prejudice’
  • 4TU federation in the Netherlands (Award 4TU-UIT-346)
© 2023 The Author(s). Published by Intellect Ltd.
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2023-07-21
2024-04-27
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Insect consumption and aesthetic disgust: Using design fiction to imagine novel food experiences
Intellect ; https://doi.org/10.1386/ijfd_00065_1
/content/journals/10.1386/ijfd_00065_1
/content/journals/10.1386/ijfd_00065_1
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Keywords: food culture ; disgust experience ; food design ; grasshoppers ; design scenarios ; insect-based food

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