Are Religious Orientations Effective on Eating Motivation

Abstract

The phenomenon of food consumption has evolved over time, influenced by social interactions, leading to diverse nutritional practices based on beliefs, politics, culture, and economic foundations. This research aims to determine eating motivations and reveal the effects of religious orientations on these motivations. The convenience sampling method, a non-probability sampling method among quantitative research sampling methods, was used in the study. Van province was chosen as the population of the research, and individuals living in the central districts of Van province (İpekyolu and Tuşba), where the population density is high, were selected as the sample. Since the eating motivations scale was applied for the first time in the Van population, exploratory factor analysis was performed. In this context, a 3-dimensional religious orientations scale and a newly structured 10-dimensional eating motivations scale were reached. As a result of the research, it is seen that individuals' religious orientations explain their eating motivations at a rate of 10.5%. The most affected sub-dimension of eating motivation is taste and habits, with 14.2%; The second dimension is health and naturalness, with 11.8%; The third dimension is convenience, with 7.9%. It was concluded that the dimension that least explains the regression model is the price dimension with 1.7%. Analysis results showed that there was a significant relationship between individuals' religious orientations and eating motivations. The research analysis supported and accepted all hypotheses established in the research model.