Visual and textual cues in online presentations of natural foods are associated with taste inference and cognitive engagement

Digital environments have become important contexts in which consumers form sensory expectations and evaluate food quality prior to consumption. Drawing on the elaboration likelihood model and attribution theory, this study develops a theoretically grounded process model to explain how visual and textual cues in online presentations of natural foods shape food-related cognition. Specifically, we propose that perceived naturalness serves as an initial perceptual input that can trigger cognitive engagement through multiple mechanisms: directly, via credibility as a validation mechanism, via taste inference as an experiential simulation, and through a sequential chain in which credibility enables taste inference that subsequently sustains elaboration. A 2 (platform type: content-oriented vs. transaction-oriented) × 2 (image scene: lifestyle-oriented vs. nature-oriented) × 2 (text framing: consumption-oriented vs. production-oriented) between-subjects experiment (N = 320) was conducted. Partial least squares structural equation modeling was employed to test direct and indirect effects; multi-group analysis examined boundary conditions across experimental contexts; and necessary condition analysis identified minimum required levels of predictors for high engagement states. The results indicate that perceived naturalness has a significant direct effect on cognitive engagement, as well as indirect effects through credibility and taste inference independently and in sequence. The indirect pathway is more pronounced in content-oriented environments, particularly when nature-oriented images and consumption-oriented text are used. Taste inference emerged as the strongest necessary condition for high cognitive engagement, followed by credibility; perceived naturalness showed a weaker but significant necessity effect. These findings demonstrate how visual and textual cues jointly guide anticipatory sensory processing and cognitive engagement in digital food contexts, offering both theoretical contributions to cue-based processing research and practical implications for the design of online presentations of natural foods.