THE ROLE OF AFFECT HEURISTICS IN RISK PERCEPTION AND ACCEPTANCE OF EMERGING FOOD TECHNOLOGIES: A SYSTEMATIC REVIEW

The affect heuristic plays a fundamental role in the perception of risks and acceptance of emerging food technologies, since emotions, both positive and negative, significantly influence the public perception of risks and the acceptability of food technologies. Therefore, the objective of this article was to investigate how the affect heuristic impacts consumers' perception of risks in the acceptance of food technologies based on a systematic literature review, using the Web of Science and Scopus databases, 90 articles were located. Using the Bibliometrix software, bibliometric and content analysis of the 23 selected articles was performed. As a result, it was identified that the main sources of publications are the following journals: Apettite; b) Food And Chemical Toxicology; c) Food Quality And Preference. Regarding the countries where the studies were conducted, the main ones are: United Kingdom (6), Switzerland (4), Belgium (2) and United States (2), with no studies carried out in Brazil being identified. The qualitative results showed that the literature has focused on some food technologies, such as: genetic modification, genome editing, synthetic biology and insect-based foods. Therefore, the results show that the affect heuristic plays a crucial role in the perception of the risks and benefits of food technologies, because when a technology evokes positive feelings, such as the promise of greater global food security, consumers tend to perceive the benefits as greater than the risks. On the other hand, if a technology generates negative emotional reactions, consumers are likely to reject it, even if the potential benefits are significant. In conclusion, this study points out that to improve the acceptance of food technologies, it is crucial to understand and address consumers' emotional concerns, in addition to providing information about the risks and benefits of these technologies.