Food Care During Production (Machine)

What it measures

The scale captures comparative judgments of automated involvement in food production, asking respondents to identify which of two products received greater machine-driven attention. Paired with its human-care companion, it lets researchers isolate how perceptions shift when production is framed as automated rather than hand-crafted.

Response format

7-point Likert (1=strongly disagree, 7=strongly agree)

Scale items

• Which food received more machine care when it was produced?
• Which food received more machine attention when it was produced?
• Which food was neglected by a machine care (i.e., not cared for by a human) during the production process?

Full scale items shown. Always cite the original source when using this scale in research.

Usage notes & scoring

A companion to the 'Human' version of this scale, also introduced by Suher, Szocs, and van Ittersum (2021) without a stated external source. Reliability ranged more widely here (α = .75–.89) across studies. As with its companion, validity wasn't directly tested, though successful use as a manipulation check offers indirect support.

Recommended companion scales

Citation

Suher, J., Szocs, C., & van Ittersum, K. (2021). When Imperfect is Preferred: The Differential Effect of Aesthetic Imperfections on Choice of Processed and Unprocessed Foods. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 49(5), 903–924.

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