CSR disclosure authenticity in food companies: The moderating effect of consumer attribution tendencies on trust formation and reputation enhancement pathways

The authenticity of corporate social responsibility (CSR) disclosure in food companies is closely associated with consumer trust and corporate reputation. However, the psychological mechanisms through which consumers' cognitive orientations shape their responses to CSR authenticity remain insufficiently understood, particularly regarding how individual differences in attributional processing create heterogeneous trust outcomes and differential reputation consequences. This study explores the moderating effects of consumer attribution tendencies (altruistic/egoistic) on the relationship between CSR disclosure authenticity and trust formation, as well as reputation enhancement pathways. Grounded in the institutional context of China's food safety regulatory framework, this study addresses two core psychological questions: how consumers' chronic attributional orientations differentially moderate the cognitive process through which perceived CSR authenticity translates into trust, and through what mechanisms these attribution-moderated trust formation processes shape corporate reputation judgments. Through a survey of 986 food consumers, empirical testing was conducted using hierarchical regression and moderated mediation analysis methods. The findings reveal that: CSR disclosure authenticity significantly positively predicts consumer trust (β = 0.524, p < 0.001); altruistic attribution tendency positively moderates the relationship between CSR disclosure authenticity and trust (β = 0.156, p < 0.001), while egoistic attribution tendency produces a negative moderating effect (β = -0.173, p < 0.001); consumer trust plays a partial mediating role between CSR disclosure authenticity and corporate reputation, with indirect effects accounting for 55.1% of the total effect; attribution tendencies influence reputation enhancement effects by altering the mediating strength of trust, with indirect effects under high altruistic attribution conditions (0.352) being 2.15 times those under low altruistic attribution conditions (0.164). Johnson-Neyman analysis further identified a critical threshold: when egoistic attribution tendency exceeds 5.94, the positive association between CSR disclosure authenticity and trust becomes non-significant, suggesting that highly skeptical consumers may be psychologically unreachable through authenticity-enhancement strategies alone. This study constructs an integrative theoretical framework of "CSR disclosure authenticity-attribution moderation-trust formation-reputation enhancement," revealing the complex cognitive boundary conditions that determine CSR communication effectiveness across heterogeneous consumer segments.