Introduction:

Consumers establish connections between a product’s tangibles and intangibles attributes and the achievement of their prioritized personal human values. Human values influence food consumption both directly and indirectly. The objective of this research was to identify the structure of, and the variation in, the human values of local consumers, as well as to identify the route of influence of those human values on the consumption of aged Zacazonapan cheese.

Method:

Consumers aged 40 and older (n = 203) answered a descriptive survey. They first selected the 13 most important human values, followed by the 13 least important, from a list of 40. They then rated the importance of 16 tangible attributes of aged Zacazonapan cheese and indicated their consumption frequency for that cheese. Multidimensional scaling analysis was used to identify the structure of these human values. Factor analysis, using the principal component method, was used to reduce the number of human values and tangible attributes. Through multiple regressions, three correlation coefficients were obtained: a) factors of the tangible attributes and consumption (R1); b) factors of the human values and residuals of tangible attributes and consumption (R2); c) factors of the human values and consumption (R3).

Results:

The most important motivational values were Benevolence, Security, Universality and Hedonism. Values such as Conformity and Tradition, related to Conservation, were not prioritized. The direct influence of human values on the consumption of aged Zacazonapan cheese was 0.05 (R2-R1 or change in R), whilst the indirect influence produced a value of 0.257 (R3-Change in R). There was no significant difference identified between males and females in the resultant structure of human values (p ≤ 0.05).

Discussion or Conclusion:

The human values structure closely followed the model proposed by Schwartz. It was through the tangible attributes that these values influenced the consumption of aged Zacazonapan cheese. This implies that consumers mainly gave a utilitarian and instrumental meaning to the cheese, giving importance to each one of the tangible attributes of the cheese (aged cheese aroma, firmness, and fattiness) to decide on its consumption.