Food Quality and Preference 31 (2014) 38–48

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Food Quality and Preference

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/foodqual

Understanding the effect of culture on food representations using word

associations: The case of ‘‘rice” and ‘‘good rice”
Jung-Soo Son a,b,c,⇑, Vinh Bao Do a,b,c, Kwang-Ok Kim d, Mi Sook Cho e, Thongchai Suwonsichon f,
Dominique Valentin a,b,c
a
CNRS, UMR 6265 Centre des Sciences du Gout et de l’Alimentation, F-21000, France
b
INRA, UMR 1324 Centre des Sciences du Gout et de l’Alimentation, F-21000 Dijon, France
c
Universite de Bourgogne, UMR Centre des Sciences du Gout et de l’Alimentation, F-21000 Dijon, France
d
Department of Food Science and Engineering, Ewha Womans University, Seoul 120-750, Republic of Korea
e
Department of Nutritional Science and Food Management, Ewha Womans University, Seoul 120-750, Republic of Korea
f
Department of Product Development, Kasetsart University, Bangkok 10900, Thailand

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Consumers’ perception toward rice was studied using a word association task in Korea, Japan, Thailand
Received 30 April 2012 and France. A total of 195 participants from four countries were asked to indicate all the words that came
Received in revised form 2 July 2013 to their minds when the stimulus words, ‘‘rice” and ‘‘good rice” were verbally presented. Frequencies of
Accepted 3 July 2013
elicited words were counted and these words were grouped in different categories by triangulation. Some
Available online 12 July 2013
similarities and differences were observed among countries. French participants tended to associate
‘‘rice” more frequently with concepts such as foreign countries, culture, travel and exoticism. Participants
Keywords:
in Asian countries tended to associate it more frequently with concepts such as agricultural products,
Rice
Good rice
necessary goods, and emotions. Framed into the triadic approach of consumption, these results indicate
Word association that symbolic motivation is more important for French participants and utilitarian and experiential moti-
Cross-cultural vations are more important for Asian participants in rice consumption. For good rice, all participants elic-
Motivation ited terms linked to taste, health and process. However the relative importance of these categories of
Memory associative structures terms differed between countries. Health was more considered by Korean and Thai participants and cook-
ing process was more considered by French and Japanese participants. Agricultural process was fre-
quently cited by Korean and Japanese participants. Results showed that there are clear cultural
differences in terms of utilitarian and symbolic motivations to consume rice as well as on the relative
importance of the main quality criteria associated with rice.
Ó 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
Rice is one of the most important grains in the world. It is not
only consumed as a staple food in many Asian countries, but its
acceptance and interest are getting bigger in Europe and the United
States (Chataigner, 1992; Suwansri, Meullenet, Hankins, & Griffin,
2002). Accordingly, rice is traded internationally and international
rice market has been expanded greatly in the past decades (Calpe,
IRRI, 2004). This phenomenon is due not only to open trade policies
but also to a changing demand for rice. Rice consumption per capi-
ta in many Asian countries has recently decreased. The key factors
for this decrease were urbanization/westernization and increased
incomes. In contrast, rice consumption increased in the United
States and European countries. This seems to be mainly due to
⇑ Corresponding author. Address: Centre des Sciences du Gout et de l’Alimenta-
tion, 9E Bd Jeanne d’Arc, 21000 Dijon, France. Tel.: +33 3 80 68 16 52; fax: +33 3 80
68 16 01.
E-mail addresses: jung-soo.son@u-bourgogne.fr, sjs4864@gmail.com (J.-S. Son).
an increased interest for Asian cuisine (Hogg & Kalafatis, 1992)
and increased concerns about diet and health (Childs, 1993). Hav-
ing a better understanding of the motivations underlying these
changing patterns of rice consumption seems to be crucial in this
competitive global rice market.
The triadic approach (utilitarian, experiential and symbolic) is
regularly used in consumer research to describe consumers’ moti-
vations (Charters, 2006; Werle, Trendel, & Ardito, 2013). Food is
associated with a biological need and evaluated from a nutritional
and health perspective for the utilitarian perception of food. On the
other hand, pleasure and taste of foods are emphasized in the
experiential perception. Symbolic dimension focus on the symbolic
meaning and messages conveyed to the consumer through goods.
In the case of wine consumption, for example, Charters (2006) ar-
gued that the symbolic and experiential motivations are more
important than the utilitarian one. It has also been noted that
the relative priority of these three purposes of consumption is cul-
ture dependent (Wong & Ahuvia, 1998). For example, Rozin,
Fischler, Imada, Sarubin, and Wrzesniewski (1999) observed that

0950-3293/$ - see front matter Ó 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.foodqual.2013.07.001
 J.-S. Son et al. / Food Quality and Preference 31 (2014) 38–48
US-American participants associated food with a utilitarian dimen-
sions whereas French participants associated it with an experien-
tial dimensions. These different perceptions toward food
consumption lead to important differences in food choice.
Many studies were conducted to understand consumers’ food
choice concerning rice consumption (Meullenet et al., 2001; Suwan-
naporn & Linnemann, 2008b; Suwansri & Meullenet, 2004; Suwansri
et al., 2002). These studies focused mostly on understanding the spe-
cific sensory attributes of cooked rice that appeal to consumers. Kao-
sa-ard and Juliano (1991) report that consumers from different
countries have different preferences for rice. For example, Japanese
consumers prefer soft, sticky rice, while Thai consumers prefer soft,
non-sticky rice. American consumers prefer non-sticky rice, but firm
rice. And consumers in India and Thailand favor fragrant or scented
rice. However, food choice has been recognized as a complex process
that goes beyond sensory properties. Indeed, food choice is also
underlined by utilitarian and symbolic dimensions, such as health
(Vickers, 1993) and price (Vickers, 1993), attitudes (Rozin, 1996;
Shepherd, 1989), ethical concerns (Sparks, Shepherd, & Frewer,
1995) and mood (Rogers, 1996). These non-sensory factors influence
consumers’ perception through cognitive expectations. Cognitive
expectations rely on pre-existing memory associative structures
created as a result of past experience. In this context to better under-
stand cultural differences in rice preference it seems to be important
to understand cultural differences in memory associative structures
associated to rice.
Different methods can be used to access consumer’s memory
associative structures. Among those methods the free word associ-
ation task has gain popularity in the last decade in the sensory
evaluation field to understand consumers’ perception of local and
organic foods (Roininen, Arvola, & Lähteenmäki, 2006), perception
of conventional and functional yogurt (Ares, Giménez, & Gámbaro,
2008), expectation created by package shape and color of milk des-
serts (Ares & Deliza, 2010), and perception of traditional food prod-
ucts (Guerrero et al., 2010). In a free word association task,
participants are prompted with a stimulus word and asked to indi-
cate either the first word (discrete association task) or all the
words (continuous association task) coming to their minds. The
strength of an associated word is measured by how many partici-
pants produced the word. Words that are produced by many par-
ticipants are assumed to have a stronger association with the
target word than words that are produced by a few participants.
The free association task was initially developed in psychology
by Galton (1880) as a way to explore thought mechanisms. Since
then, it has been used by market researchers to ensure the proper
message is conveyed by words used in promoting a company’s
product. It is now one of the most commonly used methods for
the evaluation of concepts and for studying consumers’ beliefs or
attitudes (Doise, Clémence, & Lorenzi-Cioldi, 1993; Hirsh & Tree,
2001; Hovardas & Korfiatis, 2006; Ross, 2003; Schmitt, 1998). The-
oretically based on an associative network conceptualization of
memory structure, the free association task reflects the relative
strength of automatic associations between concepts for a popula-
tion of individuals. It reveals commonalities within a group of indi-
viduals that arises as a result of similar experience. As such it
constitutes a powerful tool to compare groups with different
hypothesized association networks such as cultural groups.
According to Nelson, McEvoy, and Dennis (2000) the free associa-
tion task captures stable aspects of associative networks that can
be useful in predicting performance in a variety of tasks. When
dealing with food choice, the free association task might provide
information on cultural differences in food memory structures
which can lead to different expectations. Understanding those dif-
ferences in expectations might provide useful information in pre-
dicting food choice especially those based on utilitarian and
symbolic motivations.
39
The main objective of the present study was to compare con-
sumers’ memory structures linked to the concept of rice in four dif-
ferent countries – Korea, Japan, Thailand and France – with
important differences in historical, geographical, climatic, and eco-
nomical backgrounds of consuming rice. We were especially inter-
ested in accessing participants’ representations of rice qualities:
What makes a rice a good rice? Traditionally, rice growers and
exporters establish certain criteria to grade their commodities,
mainly physical properties such as length of grain, degree of mill-
ing, percentage of broken grains, proportion of damaged grains,
colored grains, moisture level and impurities (Kaosa-ard & Juliano,
1991). However these factors do not take into account other qual-
ity criteria that might be important from the consumer’s point of
view, such as taste, health, convenience and process (Brunsø, Fjord,
& Grunert, 2002). While these four quality dimensions appear
fairly universal (Grunert, Hartvig Larsen, Madsen, & Baadsgaard,
1996), their relative importance differs between countries. In other
words, what consumers consider good rice might depends on his-
torical and socio-cultural factors as well as food habits. A top-qual-
ity rice in one country may be considered low-quality in another.
To test this hypothesis we used a continuous free word association
test with the words ‘‘rice” and ‘‘good rice” as cues. The comparison
between the terms generated for ‘‘rice” and ‘‘good rice” will give us
some insights into the main quality criteria in each culture. More
specifically, we expected to see cultural differences in underlying
dimensions of the representation of a good food notably in terms
of tradition, health, and sensory properties. Moreover, we expected
these cultural differences to increase with the differences in histor-
ical, geographical, climatic, and economical backgrounds as well as
in food habits.
2. Materials and methods
This study was part of a large scale project comparing food atti-
tudes in four countries – Korea (Seoul), Japan (Tokyo and Tsukuba),
Thailand (Bangkok), and France (Dijon) – through several cognitive
tasks. The word association task was carried out first followed by a
sorting task on nutritional beliefs (submitted, Appetite) and a pic-
ture-word matching task on rice cooking attitudes (Son et al., 2013).
2.1. Participants
A total of 195 consumers participated in the study (Table 1). All
the participants prepared food at home and consumed rice at least
once a week. Only women were recruited, considering the fact that
women are mainly responsible to cook in Asian countries (Joseph &
Najmabadi, 2005). In each country, the participants were between
20 and 70 years old.
2.2. Word association procedure
The participants were interviewed individually in their native
language, with the same procedure in each country. First, the inter-
viewer explained to the participant that there are no right or
wrong answers. In order for the participants to be familiarized with
the task and to make them feel comfortable, the experiment
started by a warm-up session in which the participants were asked
to elicit all the words starting with the letter ‘‘b” and then all the
words coming to their minds when prompted with the word ‘‘sky”.
The experimenter did not interfere while the participants were
thinking until they said they were done, at this point, they were
prompted by the experimenter as follows ‘‘Can you write down
(or tell me) even more than that? As much as you can.” Once the par-
ticipant had properly understood the principles of the experiment,
the main session started. The first stimulus word, rice, was verbally
40 J.-S. Son et al. / Food Quality and Preference 31 (2014) 38–48

Table 1
The socio-demographic profile of the participants in the word association.

Korea Japan Thailand France

(Seoul) (Tokyo/Tsukuba) (Bangkok) (Dijon)
Age (years)
21–30 4 3 3 5
31–40 15 15 14 9
41–50 15 15 16 17
51–60 13 12 14 9
61–70 3 5 3 5
Education level
High school 11 15 10 12
College/University 24 29 29 28
Graduate school 15 6 11 5
Working status
Full time 22 15 31 35
Partime 2 8 1 2
Resting /retired 2 3 0 7
Housewife 24 24 18 1
Marital status
Married 49 47 45 37
Widowed/separated 1 3 5 8
Number of persons at home less than 2 10 8 6 23
3 12 17 13 9
4 18 17 18 9
5 6 5 8 3
More than 6 4 3 5 1
Total 50 50 50 45

presented as follows: The experimenter asked the participant ‘‘I’ll
give you words, and please write down (or tell me) everything that
comes spontaneously to your mind when you hear that word. When I
say rice, what comes to your mind?” Then the second stimulus word,
good rice, was presented to the participants in the same way. The
stimulus words used in each country for ‘‘rice” and and ‘‘good rice”
were ‘‘쌀” and ‘‘좋은 쌀” in Korea, ‘‘お米” and ‘‘いいお米” in 163 Japan,
‘‘‘‘ข้าว” and ‘‘ข้าวที่ด”ี in Thai, and ‘‘Riz” and ‘‘Bon riz” in France. ‘‘The
total duration of the test, including the introductory and training
phases, ranged from 10 to 30 min. Participants could answer either
verbally or by writing. The sessions were audio-recorded.
2.3. Data analysis
The words elicited in each country were first analyzed in the
original language by native speakers. This analysis included group-
ing: (1) the different inflected forms of words, and (2) synonym
words using dictionaries from each country. Then, the words were
translated into English. All the translations were performed and/or
verified by the researchers involved in each country. A back-trans-
lation process was applied to the words which were difficult to
translate (Brislin, 1970; Maneesriwongul & Dixon, 2004). The data
from the participants who did not elicit words but sentences were
removed from the analysis (four from Korea, three from Japan, four
from Thailand, and two from France).
Then, elicited words were qualitatively analyzed. The words
elicited in the four countries were first merged and then grouped
into categories by means of a semantic analysis. Grouping the elic-
ited words facilitates data interpretation, but this approach might
oversee subtle differences between countries (Guerrero et al.,
2010). In order to overcome this problem, elicited words were
grouped into subcategories as well as categories. All the grouping
processes were performed by triangulation: three different
researchers built up their own categories and subcategories in an
independent way. Triangulation provides a relatively powerful
means of assessing the degree of convergence as well as elaborat-
ing on divergences (Modell, 2005). At the end of the individual
grouping process, discussion was undertaken in order to obtain a
consensus regarding the generated categories and subcategories.
A label was assigned to each of the definitive categories and sub-
categories. Frequencies of elicitation were obtained by counting
the number of participants who elicited the words in each category
and subcategory. Categories and subcategories mentioned by more
than 15% of the participants in each country were considered. The
same grouping scheme was applied for rice and good rice. Chi-
square tests were conducted to examine differences between
countries. A Bonferroni correction was applied to adjust for the ef-
fects of multiple testing. Additionally, in order to better visualize
the differences between countries, a correspondence analysis was
performed on frequencies of words in each subcategory. This anal-
ysis was performed using SPADÒ 5.5 software.
Finally, we subtracted the frequency of participants who elic-
ited words from each category/subcategory when prompted with
‘‘rice” from the frequency of participants who elicited the same
words from each category/subcategory when prompted with
‘‘good rice” for each country. Chi-square tests were conducted to
observe the differences between cultures. This analysis allowed
us to highlight the main differences between rice and good rice
across cultures.
3. Results
A total of 19 categories and 79 subcategories were obtained.
3.1. Words associated to rice
For rice, 15 categories were used by more than 15% of partici-
pants among the 19 categories (Table 2). Chi-square tests showed
significant differences between cultures for eight categories. Agri-
cultural and nature were cited more frequently in the two Northeast
Asian countries, Japan and Korea, while geographical and travel/
exoticism were more often cited in France. For French and Japanese
participants, rice was linked to sensory aspects, while for Koreans, it
was more often linked to cereal/beans and nutrition. Utensil was ci-
ted in Korea, Japan, and France more often than in Thailand.
Subcategory analyses also showed clear similarities and differ-
ences between countries (Fig. 1 and Table 3). The first dimension
(40% of explained variance) of the correspondence analysis carried
 J.-S. Son et al. / Food Quality and Preference 31 (2014) 38–48 41

Table 2
Frequency of elicited categories in the word association test using the word ‘‘rice” as stimulus (% of people who associate each category).

Category Totala Korea Japan Thailand France p-Value

(n = 183) (n = 46) (n = 47) (n = 47) (n = 43)
Eating 93 89 89 87 95 n.s.
Type of rice 56 43 53 68 53 n.s.
Agricultural 51 65 62 26 47 ***
Sensory 46 37 49 28 67 **
Economical 39 52 38 32 28 n.s.
Process 37 39 26 34 47 n.s.
Geographical 37 22 34 6 81 ***
Emotion 34 35 38 30 30 n.s.
Cereal/beans 33 59 13 26 33 ***
Utensil 31 46 34 9 33 **
Nutrition 26 41 15 13 33 ***
Nature 19 35 21 2 16 ***
Family 14 20 15 13 7 n.s.
Tradition 12 13 9 4 21 n.s.
Travel/exoticism 6 2 4 0 16 **

Categories only elicited by more than 15% of participants at least in one country are shown and p-value was computed by chi-square test.
The bold numbers indicate the segment that is over represented in each row.
n.s., not significant.
** p < 0.01.
*** p < 0.001.
a
Percentage for total was weighted for population size.

out on the subcategories by culture matrix (Fig. 1a) separated
Asian participants from French participants. Asian participants
associated rice significantly more often with the ‘staple/carbohy-
drate supply’, ‘category of rice’, ‘meal’, and ‘rice snack’ subcatego-
ries which implies rice as a fundamental factor in a meal
composition than French participants. Subcategories concerning
‘country/continental’, ‘culture’, and ‘travel/exoticism’ were associ-
ated to rice less often by Asian participants than French partici-
pants. The second dimension which explains 35% of the variance
opposes Thai participants to Korean and Japanese participants.
Compared to Thai participants, Korean and Japanese participants
associated rice significantly more often to ‘farming’, ‘crops’, ‘neces-
sary good’ and ‘cooking device’ and less often to ‘breed’, ‘polishing’
and ‘flavor’. The third dimension which explains 25% of the vari-
ance opposes Japanese participants to Korean participants
(Fig. 1b). Subcategories concerning ‘nutrient’, ‘health’, ‘cereals’,
‘beans’, ‘preserving’ and ‘state’ were more elicited by Korean par-
ticipants, while ‘region’ and ‘hedonic’ were more elicited by Japa-
nese participants.
3.2. Words associated to good rice
Among the 19 categories, 13 were used by more than 15% of
participants for good rice (Table. 4). Chi-square tests showed sig-
nificant differences between cultures for seven categories among
the 13 main categories. Agricultural showed a noticeably high fre-
quency in Japan and Korea, and nutrition and clean were more fre-
quently cited in Korea and Thailand. Cross-cultural differences
with a higher frequency of citation were most evident for the fol-
lowing categories: emotion for Japanese participants; eating for
French participants; cereals/beans for Thai participants; and family
for Korean participants.
Considering the subcategories, more subtle similarities and dif-
ferences between countries were obtained compared to the main
category level (Fig. 2 and Table. 5). The first dimension of the cor-
respondence analysis (Fig. 2a) which explains 50% of the variance
separates France from the other countries. France projects closer
to ‘vegetable dish’, ‘sauce’ and ‘country/continental’. Japan and
Korea are grouped closely together and are associated with ‘re-
gion’, ‘price’, ‘age of rice’, ‘chemical’, ‘farming’, and ‘appearance’
and separated from Thailand by dimension 2 which explains 30%
of the variance. Thailand was located closer to ‘flavor’, ‘clean’,
‘nutrient’ and ‘cereals’. The third dimension (Fig. 2b) which ex-
plains 20% of the variance opposes Japan to Korea. Subcategories
concerning ‘appearance’, ‘polishing’, ‘health’, and ‘organic’ were
more often associated to good rice by Korean participants than
by Japanese participants, and the inverse trend was observed for
the ‘hedonic’ category.
3.3. Comparison between stimulus words
the most frequently cited categories/subcategories were differ-
ent for the two stimulus words – rice and good rice (Table 6). Par-
ticipants from the four countries showed a consensus in
associating categories concerning type of rice, sensory and clean
significantly more often with good rice than with rice. Agricultural
was associated less often to good rice than rice by all participants.
The analysis carried out at the subcategory level also revealed
cross-cultural differences between the two stimulus words. For
the sensory category, all subcategories but ‘appearance’ were more
frequently associated with good rice than rice in the four countries.
For ‘appearance’, this phenomenon was observed only in the three
Asian countries, not in France. Likewise, subcategories concerning
‘age of rice’ in the type of rice category, ‘hedonic’ in the emotion
category and ‘region’ in the geographical category were associated
significantly more often with good rice than with rice only in the
three Asian countries. For the nutrition category, ‘nutrients’ was
associated more frequently with good rice than with rice in Thai-
land, but inversely in France. Finally, Korean and Japanese partici-
pants associated significantly more often the subcategories
‘chemical’ and ‘price’ to good rice than rice.
4. Discussion
The aim of this study was to understand cultural differences in
memory associative structures associated to rice. In agreement
with our hypothesis, a free association task showed differences be-
tween cultures. The first main difference opposed France (a wes-
tern country) to the three Asian countries. Such an opposition
between Western and Eastern countries had been often described
in the literature (Hofstede, 1980; Kagitcibasi, 1997; Triandis, 1989;
Triandis, 1994) and explained in terms of difference in though pat-
terns: Asian cultural traditions and values would stem from
42 J.-S. Son et al. / Food Quality and Preference 31 (2014) 38–48

Factor 2 - 34.73 %
1.5
(a)

Flavour

1.0

Meat dish

TH

Breed Fish dish

0.5
Category of rice
Eating
Distribution
State Dessert
Family members

FR Culture
Country/continental
Rice snack Cereals
0 Staple/carbohydrate supply Health
Cooking
Non alcoholic beverage Hedonic
Plate/dish Travel/exotism
Texture Nutrient
KO Farming Rice dish Appearance Vegetable dish
Preserving Necessary JA
Meals Spice
Beans
Animals
Crops Region
-0.5 Cooking device

-0.8 -0.4 0 0.4 0.8

Factor 1 - 39.87 %

Factor 3 - 25.40 %
1.0
(b)

Spice
0.5
JA
Rice dish

Hedonic
Meals
Category of rice
Fish dish
Crops Farming Meat dish
Plate/dish Vegetable dish
TH Region
Breed Travel/exotism

Distribution
0 Flavour
Dessert Eating
Cooking device
Rice snack
Staple/carbohyd rat e supply
Necessary Appearance
FR
State Cooking
Nutrient Culture
Country/continen tal
Texture
KO Family members
Animals
Cereals
-0.5 Health

Preserving
Non alcoholic beverage Beans

-1.0

-0.8 -0.4 0 0.4 0.8

Factor 1 - 39.87 %

Fig. 1. Correspondence analysis of the subgroups obtained in the word association test using the word ‘‘rice” as stimulus. KO, Korea; JA, Japan; TH, Thailand; FR, France.

Confucian philosophy whereas Western traditions tend to stem would contribute to collectivism among Asian cultures, while Wes-
from ancian greek philosophy (Nisbette, 2004). These fundamental tern cultures tend to be more individualistic. These cultural differ-
differences in thought patterns have implications that extend to all ences between East and West societies result in differences in
aspects of life. In particular the cultural influence of Confucianism beliefs and values and lead to differences in life styles (Schwartz,
 J.-S. Son et al. / Food Quality and Preference 31 (2014) 38–48 43

Table 3
Frequency of elicited subcategories in the word association test using the word ‘‘rice” as stimulus (% of people who associate each subcategory).

Category Subcategory Totala Korea Japan Thailand France p-Value

(n = 183) (n = 46) (n = 47) (n = 47) (n = 43)
Eatingn.s. Rice dish 47 39 62 36 47 n.s.
Staple/carbohydrate supply 35 65 34 36 2 ***
Dessert 30 46 21 23 28 *
Eating 28 28 15 32 33 n.s.
Meals 18 17 34 9 9 **
Vegetable dish 18 11 23 2 33 ***
Rice snack 12 22 13 11 0 *
Meat dish 10 0 9 13 19 *
Spice 10 7 21 2 9 *
Side dish 10 9 0 26 5 ***
Fish dish 9 2 6 11 16 n.s.
Non-alcoholic beverage 5 15 0 4 0 **
Type of ricen.s. Category of rice 41 41 40 55 23 *
Breed 32 15 19 47 44 ***
***
Agricultural Farming 44 50 55 21 44 **
Crops 19 30 36 6 0 ***
Animal 7 15 6 2 5 n.s.
Sensory** Appearance 32 28 38 9 51 ***
Texture 15 20 13 9 16 n.s.
Flavor 7 7 0 19 0 ***
Economicaln.s. Necessary good 20 35 26 6 9 **
Distribution 14 15 13 19 7 n.s.
Processn.s. Cooking 29 33 21 17 42 *
Polishing 8 7 6 17 0 *
Preserving 6 15 2 2 2 *
Geographical*** Country/continental 31 13 19 6 81 ***
Region 11 11 17 0 14 *
Emotionn.s. Hedonic 19 13 32 11 19 *
State 13 22 6 17 5 *
Cereal/beans*** Cereals 31 54 13 23 30 ***
Beans 6 17 2 2 2 **
Utensil** Cooking device 19 37 26 6 7 ***
Plate/dish 15 11 19 6 23 n.s.
Nutrition*** Nutrient 19 33 9 9 26 **
Health 10 24 2 6 5 **
Familyn.s. Family members 8 15 2 6 7 n.s.
Traditionn.s. Culture 8 2 4 2 21 ***
Travel/exoticism** – 6 2 4 0 16 **

Categories only elicited by more than 15% of participants at least in one country are shown and p-value was computed by chi-square test.
The bold numbers indicate the segment that is over represented in each row.
n.s., not significant.
* p < 0.05.
** p < 0.01.
*** p < 0.001.
a
Percentage for total was weighted for population size.

1992) and consumption motivations. Our results are in line with
these previous studies. The French participants considered rice as
something from other cultures (tradition, travel/exoticism, and
geographical). This suggests that symbolic motivation plays a more
important role in rice consumption in France than in Asian coun-
tries. This interpretation of French participants’ attitude toward
rice diverges somewhat with their attitude toward general food
consumption reported by Rozin et al. (1999). In the survey of atti-
tude to food, Rozin et al. (1999) observed that pleasant was the
most important factor associating food for French. Our results sug-
gest that the relative priority of the purpose of consumption de-
pends upon the food item. In Asian countries, on the other hand,
rice was considered as important provision and a major ingredient
(‘staple/carbohydrate supply’, ‘category of rice’, ‘meal’, ‘non-alco-
holic beverage’ and ‘rice snack’) for the basic physical needs. Util-
itarian motives seem to dominate rice consumption.
While ‘category of rice’ (e.g. brown rice, black rice, and gluti-
nous rice) was mentioned mostly by Japanese and Korean partici-
pants, different rice ‘breeds’ (e.g. basmati rice, jasmine, and short
grain) were cited mostly by French participants. Thai participants
equally cited these two subcategories. This might be related to
the different market condition and rice consuming patterns in each
country. The French rice market offers multiple choices of rice vari-
eties and those various breeds are written on the package with the
country of origin (e.g. Indian basmati, Thai jasmine etc.). In the case
of Thailand, Jasmine rice is dominantly traded domestically and
overseas, and the name Jasmine rice, khao hom mali, is commonly
written on the package. Instead of using breed names of rice, sub-
varieties or places of cultivation are more frequently indicated in
Korea and Japan. This may lead Korean and Japanese consumers
to pay less attention to the breed of rice than French and Thai par-
ticipants. Indeed, in the consumer survey by Han, Lee, Park, Park,
and Cho (2007), 40% of Korean participants could not indicate their
preferred rice cultivar as this information is not regarded by them.
Among the three Asian countries, high similarities were ob-
served between Korea and Japan. These two countries are not only
close to each other geographically but they also share a cultural
perception of rice. Rice farming used to be the main industry in
both countries before they experienced a rapid industrial growth.
This may explain why rice provokes agriculture-related nostalgic
emotions such as ‘hometown’, ‘scenery of countryside’, and ‘family
members’. There is, also, a linguistic link between Korean and Jap-
anese that shows the primacy of rice as a staple diet. The words for
‘‘cooked rice” in Korea and Japan, bab and gohan respectively, are
44 J.-S. Son et al. / Food Quality and Preference 31 (2014) 38–48

Table 4 rent increase in rice consumption in France has been linked to the
Frequency of elicited categories in the word association test using the word ‘‘good perception of rice as a healthy food (Supakornchuwon, Suwannap-
rice” as stimulus (% of people who associate each category).
orn, Silayoi, & Chaveesuk, 2008).
Category Totala Korea Japan Thailand France p-Value Our second hypothesis was that the differences in what is asso-
(n = 183) (n = 46) (n = 47) (n = 47) (n = 43) ciated with rice would lead to different theories about what is a
Type of rice 71 63 66 77 72 n.s. good rice. Sensory aspects, type of rice, and cleanliness were con-
Sensory 70 72 64 72 63 n.s. sidered as important criteria for good rice in all four countries,
Emotion 42 39 64 40 19 ***
Economical 39 46 49 28 28 n.s.
which can be the criteria for better taste, nutrition, and safety.
Process 37 35 34 30 44 n.s. The importance of sensory characteristics as a quality factor in
Geographical 34 39 40 21 30 n.s. determining consumers’ acceptance has been pointed out in a
Eating 30 30 2 26 60 *** number of studies (Meullenet, et al., 2001; Suwannaporn & Linne-
Agricultural 29 48 45 4 16 ***
mann, 2008a; Suwannaporn & Linnemann, 2008b; Suwansri, et al.,
Nutrition 27 41 19 34 12 **
Cereal/beans 19 15 17 34 7 ** 2002; Suwansri. et al., 2004). And with increasing health-con-
Clean 13 17 6 26 0 ** sciousness, people are getting more sensitive to nutritional intake
Utensil 10 7 15 2 16 n.s. and food safety.
Family 7 17 2 2 5 ** Although the general representation of good rice was similar in
Categories only elicited by more than 15% of participants at least in one country are all four countries, specific characteristics differed among countries.
shown and p-value was computed by chi-square test. For example, ‘texture’ was frequently elicited by French partici-
The bold numbers indicate the segment that is over represented in each row. pants. The rice breed which is considered as premium in France
n.s., not significant.
is basmati, which has a ‘‘non-sticky” texture. The non-stickiness
** p < 0.01.
*** p < 0.001. of rice was reported to be one of the important quality attributes
a
Percentage for total was weighted for population size. in France, the U.K. and Spain (d’Hauteville, 1992). Many Korean,
Thai, and Japanese participants elicited ‘texture’ attributes as well,
but the specific texture terms (soft and sticky) they generated dif-
fered from those generated by French participants. Furthermore,
also used for ‘‘meal” in both countries. Likewise, the terms used to Korean, Thai, and Japanese participants elicited many terms which
refer to ‘‘breakfast”, ‘‘lunch”, and ‘‘dinner” in Korea and Japan have describe the appearance of well-cooked rice such as ‘‘glossy”,
the same word-formation by extending ‘‘cooked rice” with pre- ‘‘fluffy”, and ‘‘integrity of grain”. With a wide experience in cooking
fixes; achimbab, jeomsimbab, and jeonyeogbab in Korean, asagohan, and eating rice, the proper texture can be inferred directly from the
hirugohan, and bangohan in Japanese, respectively. These terms visual appearance. In addition, ‘flavor’ was frequently elicited
indicate that it is almost impossible for most Koreans and Japanese mostly by Thais. As already mentioned, the aroma of jasmine rice
people to think of a meal without rice. is a unique characteristic and an important quality trait of rice
Although Korean and Japanese participants show some com- for Thai consumers (Suwannaporn & Linnemann, 2008b).
mon cognitive and affective constructs on rice, cultural differences As for rice, Korean and Japanese participants showed similari-
were also observed for the emotional category. The Japanese elic- ties on the perception of good rice. In both countries, many partic-
ited more hedonic terms such as ‘‘tasty” and ‘‘like”, and Korean ipants elicited specific region, agricultural methods, price, and age
participants elicited more state terms such as ‘‘full” and ‘‘hungry”. of rice. On the rice packages in Korea and Japan, the place of pro-
These results suggest that Japanese people attach a greater impor- duction is usually printed along with the brand name (Kim,
tance to experiential motives of consuming rice (sensory enjoy- 2010; Ohnuki-Tierney, 1993). In these countries, the fact that the
ment), while Korean people have a more utilitarian (satiation) rice was produced in certain regions (Yeoju or Icheon in Korea
approach of rice consumption. The subcategory ‘state’ was also fre- and Ibaraki or Niikata in Japan) is considered as a guaranty of its
quently elicited by Thai participants suggesting that rice is consid- quality. ‘‘Domestically produced” products also guaranteed its
ered as a very important energy source in Korea and Thailand. quality, in terms of taste and safety, in both countries. The high
Indeed the calorie intake from rice in Korea and Thailand is much rate of citation of agricultural methods, such as ‘‘eco-friendly”,
higher than in Japan. In Thailand and Korea, rice accounts for ‘‘organic”, ‘‘chemical-free”, might reflect Korean and Japanese con-
nearly 30–45% of calories but only for about 20% in Japan (FAO., sumers’ increased consciousness regarding food safety problems
2009). that may be caused by GMO bioscience and the excessive use of
Participants from all four countries associated rice with differ- insecticides, agricultural chemicals, fertilizers, antiseptics, and
ent sensory characteristics, mainly related to appearance and tex- antibiotics (Kim, 2010).
ture, except for Thai participants who associated it more often with ‘Age of rice’ was another important issue for good rice in Korea
flavor. This difference between Thai and other participants might and Japan. Unlike Thailand, rice can be cultivated only once a year
be linked to rice consumption habits. Aromatic rice is the most in both countries. Many studies showed that the quality of rice is
consumed and cultivated rice breed in Thailand and its unique fra- deteriorated due to microbial damage and oxidation as well as
grance is thought to play a major role in its marketability and con- dehydration during storage (Meullenet, Marks, Hankins, Griffin, &
sumer acceptability in Thailand (Sakthivel, Sundaram, Shobha Daniels, 2000; Park, Kim, Park, & Kim, 2012; Zhou, Robards, Helli-
Rani, Balachandran, & Neeraja, 2009). well, & Blanchard, 2007; Zhou, Robards, Helliwell, & Blanchard,
Korean and French participants elicited the subcategories ‘cere- 2010). Korean and Japanese consumers were sensitive to those fac-
als’ and ‘nutrients’ more frequently than the two other countries. tors and frequently associated good rice with ‘age of rice’ which
In contemporary Korea, rice is often cooked with other grains can affect quality of rice, in terms of taste and safety.
including millet, sorghum, barley, and beans (Kim, 2010). Kim Even though there are some common ideas on good rice be-
and Lee (2006) reported that 84.8% of the respondents consumed tween Korean and Japanese participants, some differences exist.
multigrain such as Soritae (bean), brown rice, black rice and waxy While Japanese participants emphasized the liking of the taste of
rice for better nutrition intake. This can be interpreted as a result of rice, Korean participants showed a high degree of interest in health
the traditional Korean value which regards food as ‘‘medicine”, and nutrition, related to good rice. This health-consciousness to-
influenced by the Chinese culture (Park & Kwon, 2007). It seems ward rice was also shown among Thais. A new diet–health para-
that rice is perceived as a nourishing source in France too. The cur- digm in Thailand goes beyond the role of food constituents as
 J.-S. Son et al. / Food Quality and Preference 31 (2014) 38–48 45

Factor 2 - 30.00 %
Organic
(a) Cooking device
Chemical
0.5 Farming
Polishing
Vegetable dish Sauce
Region Price
KO JA Feeling Taste
Age of rice Destribution
Cooking FR
Appearance
Health Hedonic Country/continental
0
Category of rice
Quality Texture

Breed

Cereals
-0.5 Clean Nutrient

TH

Flavour

-1.0

-1.5

-0.5 0 0.5 1.0 1.5

Factor 1 - 49.66 %

Factor 3 - 20.34 %
(b)
1.0 Polishing

Organic

0.5
Health
KO
Clean Nutrient Vegetable dish
Feeling
Categoryof rice Sauce
Flavour Texture
Appearance Country/continental FR
0 TH
Age of rice Cereals
Quality
Chemical Price Breed
Region Destribution
Farming Taste
Hedonic Cooking

-0.5 JA
Cooking device

-1.0

-1.5
-0.5 0 0.5 1.0 1.5
Factor 1 - 49.66 %

Fig. 2. Correspondence analysis of the subgroups obtained in the word association test using the word ‘‘good rice” as stimulus. KO, Korea; JA, Japan; TH, Thailand; FR, France.

essential nutrients required for sustaining life and growth, to one
of preventing or delaying the onset of chronic diseases later in life,
as a result of health transitions with rapid socio-economic devel-
opment (Koslwat, 2002; Kachondham, Winichagoon, & Tontisirin,
1992; Powles, 1992; Vorsler, Borne, Venter, & Oosthuizen, 1999).
Indeed, brown rice, containing more complex carbohydrates, be-
came popular recently as it is recognized as healthier than white
rice (Sowattanangoon, Kotchabhakdi, & Petrie, 2009).
Cooking processes and cooking devices were associated to good
rice more frequently in Japan and France. The quality of cooked rice
depends on the cooking process as well as the ingredient itself
(Park, Kim, & Kim, 2001; Perdon, Siebenmorgen, Mauromoustakos,
Griffin, & Johnson, 2001). The cooking processes and devices elic-
ited in each country allow us to understand popular and important
cooking methods and procedures in each country: For example,
‘‘soaking”, ‘‘amount of water”, ‘‘electronic rice cooker” in Japan,
46 J.-S. Son et al. / Food Quality and Preference 31 (2014) 38–48

Table 5
Frequency of elicited subcategories in the word association test using the word ‘‘good rice” as stimulus (% of people who associate each subcategory).

Category Subcategory Totala Korea Japan Thailand France p-Value

(n = 183) (n = 46) (n = 47) (n = 47) (n = 43)
Type of ricen.s. Breed 49 20 45 70 58 ***
Category of rice 35 41 26 45 26 n.s.
Age of rice 16 26 23 13 0 **
Sensoryn.s. Texture 44 44 28 53 47 n.s.
Appearance 42 61 43 43 16 ***
Flavor 15 11 6 36 5 ***
Taste 12 9 17 6 16 n.s.
Quality 12 11 13 15 7 n.s.
Emotion*** Hedonic 39 37 62 40 14 ***
Feeling 10 15 9 6 7 n.s.
Economicaln.s Price 21 28 32 11 12 *
Distribution 20 22 28 15 14 n.s.
Processn.s. Cooking 27 13 34 19 37 *
Polishing 6 20 0 2 2 ***
Geographicaln.s. Region 19 28 32 11 5 **
Country/continental 17 15 13 13 28 n.s.
Eating*** Vegetable dish 7 2 0 0 23 ***
Sauce 4 0 0 0 16 ***
Agricultural*** Chemical 13 22 23 2 5 **
Farming 13 17 23 2 7 **
Organic 11 35 6 0 2 ***
Nutrition** Nutrient 16 20 6 30 5 **
Health 12 24 6 13 5 *
Cereals/beans** Cereals 19 15 17 34 7 **
Clean** – 13 17 6 26 0 **
Utensiln.s. Cooking device 7 7 15 0 5 *

Categories only elicited by more than 15% of participants at least in one country are shown and p-value was computed by chi-square test.
The bold numbers indicate the segment that is over represented in each row.
n.s. not significant.
*
p < 0.05.
**p < 0.01.
***p < 0.001.
a
Percentage for total was weighted for population size.

Table 6
Differences of frequency of elicited categories/subcategories between word association to rice and good rice (% of people).

Category Differences Subcategory Differences

Total p-Value Korea p-Value Japan p-Value Thailand p-Value France p-Value
Type of rice 15 ** Age of rice 22 ** 14 * 13 * 0
Breed 5 26 ** 23 * 14
Sensory 24 *** Appearance 33 ** 5 34 *** 35 ***
Flavor 4 6 17 5
Quality 11 * 13 * 9 7
Taste 5 8 4 7
Texture 23 * 15 44 *** 31 **
Agricultural 22 *** Chemical 18 * 21 * 0 5
Organic 33 *** 6 0 2
Economical 0 Distribution 7 15 4 7
Price 24 ** 30 *** 7 7
Emotion 8 Hedonic 24 ** 30 ** 29 ** 5
Geographical 3 Region 17 * 15 11 * 9
Nutrition 1 Nutrient 13 3 21 ** 21 **
Clean 11 ** – 13 * 6 24 ** 0

Data only shown the results when a subcategory was more associated to good rice than rice by more than 15% of participants in one country.
A negative value indicates that a word was more frequently associated to rice than to good rice.
*
p < 0.05.
**p < 0.01.
***p < 0.001.

‘‘salt”, ‘‘water”, ‘‘boiling”, ‘‘gas stove”, ‘‘pot” in France. It was inter-
esting to see that those frequently elicited cooking methods were
related to preferred properties of cooked rice. In line with this re-
sult, a picture-work matching task on rice cooking processes car-
ried out with the same participants (Son et al., 2013) showed
that the more familiar cooking process was associated with better
sensory quality.
To sum up, the continuous word association task prove to be a
useful tool to explore cultural similarities and differences on the
attitudes toward a single food product, rice, and on the perception
of quality of this product. Such an approach was previously used to
understand cultural differences in attitude toward ‘food’ in general
(Rozin, Kurzer, & Cohen, 2002), food categories such as traditional
(Guerrero et al., 2010) and natural (Rozin, Fischler, and Shields-
Argeles, 2012) food, and usage of textures terms to describe food
(Antmann et al., 2011a; Antmann et al., 2011b). Taken together,
previous results and our results show that despite the risk of chain
effect at the individual level, using a continuous task, rather than a
 J.-S. Son et al. / Food Quality and Preference 31 (2014) 38–48
discrete one, limited to a single response, we were able to capture
the richness of a given group’s association network in spite of a
small sample size. However, the small sample size was not enough
to capture within-country variations which may exist in each
culture.
5. Conclusion
This study investigated cultural differences in consumers’ mental
representation of rice using a continuous free word association task.
From a theoretical point of view we showed that dietary experiences
emerging from different historical, geographical, climatic, and eco-
nomical backgrounds influenced consumers’ affective and cognitive
constructs towards rice and evaluative constructs towards good rice.
From a practical point of view our results contribute to a greater
knowledge of quality criteria that consumers from different cultures
expect to find when they consume rice. These criteria might be par-
ticularly important when defining communication and marketing
strategies in the global rice market. Moreover we showed that par-
ticipants from different cultures weighted differently tradition,
health, and sensory dimensions of rice when evaluating its quality.
This should be taken into account when selecting key quality param-
eters for the development of new rice products.
A main limitation of this work is that it relies on declarative
data and as such it is only a first step into understanding cross-cul-
tural differences in motivation underlying rice consumption. Addi-
tional work relying on behavioral measurement is needed to
explore further these cultural differences. From a consumer point
of view, for example it would be useful to measure consumers’ ac-
tual preference when different types of information are provided
with rice samples to validate the importance of the different driv-
ers highlighted in this study.
Acknowledgments
This work is funded by FUI and Regional Council of Burgundy.
The authors want to warmly thank Marceline Evrard and Christelle
Pecher comments on earlier drafts of this paper.
References
Antmann, G., Ares, G., Varela, P., Salavador, A., Coste, B., & Fiszman, S. (2011a).
Consumers’ creaminess concept perception: A cross-cultural study in three
Spanish-speaking countries. Journal of Texture Studies, 42, 50–60.
Antmann, G., Ares, G., Varela, P., Salavador, A., Coste, B., & Fiszman, S. (2011b).
Consumers’ texture vocabulary: Results from a free listing study in three
Spanish-speaking countries. Food Quality and Preference, 22, 165–172.
Ares, G., & Deliza, R. (2010). Studying the influence of package shape and colour on
consumer expectations of milk desserts using word association and conjoint
analysis. Food Quality and Preference, 21, 930–937.
Ares, G., Giménez, A., & Gámbaro, A. (2008). Understanding consumers’ perception
of conventional and functional yogurts using word association and hard
laddering. Food Quality and Preference, 19(7), 636–643.
Brislin, R. W. (1970). Back-translation for cross-cultural research. Journal of Cross-
Cultural Psychology, 1, 185–216.
Brunsø, K., Fjord, T. A., Grunert Klaus G., (2002) Consumers’ food choice and quality
perception. Working paper no 77, June, ISSN 0907 2101.
Calpe, C. (2004). International trade in rice: Recent developments and prospects. In
Proceedings of the world rice research conference, November 5–7, Tsukuba, Japan. .
Charters, S. (2006). The motivation to drink wine. Wind and society: The social and
cultural context of a drink. Elsevier Ltd., pp. 131–156.
Chataigner, J. (1992). Simultaneous growth and diversification of rice consumption
in Europe and the USA. In Proceedings of the prospects for rice consumption in
Europe symposium, October 24, Verona, Italy. .
Childs, N. (1993). Americans are eating more rice. Food Review, USDA, 16(2), 19–25.
d’Hauteville, F. (1992). European consumers’ rice perception. In Proceedings of the
prospects for rice consumption in Europe symposium, October 24, Verona, Italy. .
Doise, W., Clémence, A., & Lorenzi-Cioldi, F. (1993). The quantitative analysis of social
representations. Hemel Hempstead: Harvester Wheatsheaf.
FAO (2009). FAO online database. http://www.fao.org/corp/statistics/.
Galton, F. (1880). Psychometric experiments. Brain, 2, 149–162.
Grunert, K. G., Hartvig Larsen, H., Madsen, T. K., & Baadsgaard, A. (1996). Market
orientation in food and agriculture. Norwell, MA: Kluwer.
47
Guerrero, L., Claret, A., Verbeke, W., Enderli, G., Zakowska-Biemans, S., Vanhonacker,
F., et al. (2010). Perception of traditional food products in six European regions
using free word association. Food Quality and Preference, 21(2), 225–233.
Han, G.-J., Lee, H.-Y., Park, H.-J., Park, Y.-H., & Cho, Y.-S. (2007). Cooking technique
development to improve the taste of cooked rice: A consumer survey on
purchasing rice and cooked rice consumption. Korean Journal of Food Cookery
Science, 23, 452–460.
Hirsh, K. W., & Tree, J. J. (2001). Word association norms for two cohorts of British
adults. Journal of Neurolinguistics, 14, 1–44.
Hofstede, G. (1980). Culture’s consequences: International differences in work-related
values. Beverly-Hills: Sage.
Hogg, A., & Kalafatis, A. (1992). Current trends in the United Kingdom market for
rice. In Proceedings of the prospects for rice consumption in Europe symposium,
October 24, Verona, Italy. .
Hovardas, T., & Korfiatis, K. J. (2006). Word associations as a tool for assessing
conceptual change in science education. Learning and Instruction, 16, 416–432.
Joseph, S., & Najmabadi, A. (2005). East Asia, Southeast Asia, and Australia.
Encyclopedia of Women & Islamic Cultures: Family, Law, and, Politics, 131–134.
Kachondham, Y., Winichagoon, P., & Tontisirin, K. (1992). Nutrition and Health in
Thailand: Trends and actions. UN ACC/SCN country case study supported by UNICEF
Institute of Nutrition, Mahidol University at Salaya, Bangkok. P I Printing.
Kagitcibasi, C. (1997). Individualism and collectivism. In: J.W. Berry, M.H. Segall, C.
Kagitcibasi (Eds.), Handbook of cross-cultural psychology: Social behavior and
applications (pp. 1–49), Vol. 3. Boston, MA: Allyn and Bacon.
Kaosa-ard, M., & Juliano, B. O. (1991). Assessing rice quality characteristics and
prices in selected international markets. In Rice. Grain (Ed.), Marketing and
quality issues. Los Banos, Laguna, The Philippines: International Rice Research
Institute.
Kim, K. O. (2010). Rice cuisine and cultural practice in contemporary Korean dietary
life. Korea Journal, 50(1), 11–15.
Kim, Y. S., & Lee, G. C. (2006). A Survey on the consumption and satisfaction degree
of the cooked rice mixed with multi-grain in Seoul, Kyeonggi and Kangwon
Area. Korean Journal of Food Culture, 21, 661–669.
Maneesriwongul, W., & Dixon, J. K. (2004). Instrument translation process: A
methods review. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 48, 175–186.
Meullenet, J.-F., Griffin, V. K., Carson, K., Davis, G., Davis, S., Gross, J., et al. (2001).
Rice external preference mapping for asian consumers living in the United
States. Journal of Sensory Studies, 16, 73–94.
Meullenet, J.-K., Marks, B. P., Hankins, J.-A., Griffin, V. K., & Daniels, M. J. (2000).
Sensory quality of cooked long-grain rice as affected by rough rice moisture
content, storage temperature, and storage duration. Cereal Chemistry, 77(2),
259–263.
Modell, S. (2005). Triangulation between case study and survey methods in
management accounting research: An assessment of validity implications.
Management Accounting Research, 16, 231–254.
Nelson, D. L., McEvoy, C. L., & Dennis, S. (2000). What is free association and what
does it measure? Memory and Cognition, 28, 887–899.
Nisbett, R. E. (2004). The geography of thought. How Asians and Westerner’s think
differently... and why. New York: The Free Press.
Ohnuki-Tierney, E. (1993). Rice as self. Princeton University Press.
Park, J. K., Kim, S. S., & Kim, O. K. (2001). Effect of milling ratio on sensory properties
of cooked rice and on physicochemical properties of milled and cooked rice.
Cereal Chemistry, 78(2), 151–156.
Park, C.-E., Kim, Y.-S., Park, K.-J., & Kim, B.-K. (2012). Changes in physicochemical
characteristics of rice during storage at different temperatures. Journal of Stored
Products Research, 48, 25–29.
Park, J. H., & Kwon, O. O. (2007). A study on consumption behavior of health
functional food. Korean Journal of Food Marketing Economics, 24(3), 43–57.
Perdon, A. A., Siebenmorgen, T. J., Mauromoustakos, A., Griffin, V. K., & Johnson, E. R.
(2001). Degree of milling effects on rice pasting properties. Cereal Chemistry, 78
(2), 205–209.
Powles, J. (1992). Changing lifestyles and health. Asia Pacific Journal of Clinical
Nutrition, 1, 113–126.
Rogers, P. J. (1996). Food choice, mood and mental performance: Some examples
and some mechanisms. In H. Meiselman & H. J. H. MacFie (Eds.), Food choice,
acceptance and consumption. London: Blackie.
Roininen, K., Arvola, A., & Lähteenmäki, L. (2006). Exploring consumers’ perceptions
of local food with two different qualitative techniques: Laddering and word
association. Food Quality and Preference, 17(1–2), 20–30.
Ross, T. P. (2003). The reliability of cluster and switch scores for the controlled oral
word association test. Archives of Clinical Neuropsychology, 18(2), 153–164.
Rozin, P., Fischler, C., Imada, S., Sarubin, A., & Wrzesniewski, A. (1999). Attitudes to
food and the role of food in life in the U.S.A., Japan, Flemish Belgium and France.
Possible implications for the diet-health debate. Appetite, 33, 163–180.
Rozin, P., Kurzer, N., & Cohen, A. (2002). Free associations to ‘‘food:’’ the effects of
gender, generation, and culture. Journal of Research in Personality, 419–441.
Rozin, P. (1996). The socio-cultural context of eating and food choice. In H.
Meiselman & H. J. H. MacFie (Eds.), Food choice, acceptance and consumption.
London: Blackie.
Sakthivel, K., Sundaram, R. M., Shobha Rani, N., Balachandran, S. M., & Neeraja, C. N.
(2009). Genetic and molecular basis of fragrance in rice. Biotechnology Advances,
27, 468–473.
Schmitt, N. (1998). Quantifying word association responses: What is native-like?
System, 26(3), 389–401.
Shepherd, R. (1989). Factors influencing food preferences and choice. In R. Shepherd
(Ed.), Handbook of the psychophysiology of human eating. Chichester: Wiley.
48 J.-S. Son et al. / Food Quality and Preference 31 (2014) 38–48
Son, J.-S., Do, V. B., Kim, K.-O., Cho, M. S., Suwonsichon, T., & Valentin, D. (2013).
Consumers’ attitude towards rice cooking processes in Korea, Japan, Thailand
and France. Food Quality and Preference, 29, 65–75.
Sowattanangoon, N., Kotchabhakdi, N., & Petrie, K. J. (2009). The influence of Thai
culture on diabetes perceptions and management. Diabetes Research and Clinical
Practice, 84, 245–251.
Sparks, P., Shepherd, R., & Frewer, L. J. (1995). Assessing and structuring attitudes
towards the use of gene technology in food production: The role of perceived
ethical obligation. Basic and Applied Social Psychology, 16(3), 267–285.
Supakornchuwon, C., Suwannaporn, P., Silayoi, P., & Chaveesuk, R. (2008). Belief and
attitude towards rice, potato and pasta consumption in the UK, France, Belgium
and the Netherlands. In Proceedings of 46th Kasetsart University annual
conference (pp. 514–520). Bangkok (Thailand): Agro-Industry, Kasetsart
University.
Suwannaporn, P., & Linnemann, A. R. (2008a). Consumer preferences and buying
criteria in rice: A study to identify market strategy for Thailand jasmine rice
export. Journal of Food Products Marketing, 14, 33–53.
Suwannaporn, P., & Linnemann, A. R. (2008b). Rice-eating quality among
consumers in different rice grain preference countries. Journal of Sensory
Studies, 23, 1–13.
Suwansri, S., & Meullenet, J.-F. (2004). Physicochemical characterization and
consumer acceptance by Asian consumers of aromatic Jasmine rice. Journal of
Food Science, 69(1), 30–37.
Suwansri, S., Meullenet, J.-F., Hankins, J. A., & Griffin, K. (2002). Preference mapping
of domestic/imported Jasmine rice for U.S.-Asian consumers. Journal of Food
Science, 67, 2420–2431.
Triandis, H. C. (1989). The self and social behavior in differing cultural contexts.
Psychological Review, 96, 506–520.
Triandis, H. C. (1994). Culture and social behavior. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Vickers, M. Z. (1993). Incorporating tasting into a conjoint analysis of taste, health
claim, price and brand for purchasing strawberry yogurt. Journal of Sensory
Studies, 8(4), 341–352.
Vorsler, H. H., Borne, L. T., Venter, C. S., & Oosthuizen, W. (1999). Contribution of
nutrition to the health transition in developing countries: A framework for
research and intervention. Nutrition Reviews, 57, 341–349.
Werle, C., Trendel, O., & Ardito, G. (2013). Unhealthy food is not tastier for
everybody: The ‘‘healthy = tasty”‘ French intuition. Food Quality and Preference,
28, 116–121.
Wong, N. Y., & Ahuvia, A. C. (1998). Personal taste and family face: Luxury
consumption in Confucian and western societies. Psychology and Marketing, 15
(5), 423–441.
Zhou, Z., Robards, K., Helliwell, S., & Blanchard, C. (2007). Effect of storage
temperature on cooking behaviour of rice. Food Chemistry, 105(2), 491–497.
Zhou, Z., Robards, K., Helliwell, S., & Blanchard, C. (2010). Effect of storage
temperature on rice thermal properties. Food Research International, 43(3),
709–715.