"Organic is the most valuable thing there is" : legitimating the consumption of organic food products by emotions

Besides cognitions, also emotions have an effect to purchasing decisions of the consumers. The impact of emotions to consumption decisions in general has been studied quite extensively but in the field of organic food consumption the previous studies have not taken this view comprehensively into consideration. Because consumers of organic food products seem to legitimate their purchasing decisions by emotions it is important to study what kind of legitimation strategies they use and what kind of factors encourages their consumption. Consumers use the following strategies to legitimate their consumption decisions: authorization, rationalization, moral evaluation, and mythopoesis. Which strategy is used in each case depends for instance on which kinds of emotions encourages the consumers’ purchasing decisions. Additionally, several motivational factors (i.e. environmental and health concerns, taste of organic food, or price premium of organic food) can have an impact to one’s consumption habits. This thesis studies the way consumers legitimate their consumption of organic food products by emotions, what kind of emotions affect to their purchasing decisions and what kind of legitimating strategies they use. The results of the study indicate that both positive and negative emotions are used in legitimating the consumption and moral evaluation as well as rationalization are the most popular legitimation strategies, respectively. Also different themes that are related to motivational factors of consumption are represented in the legitimation process of the organic food consumers.