Some chips with that?: Consumer psychology at the interface of technology and food

This article reviews recent consumer psychology research at the intersection of food and technology. Food technologies vary both in how and in where they operate. Some technologies act directly on food during its production or processing (e.g., GMOs, cultured meat). These innovations tend to be “supply-side” driven; they are mostly developed by producers for reasons of environmental sustainability, which is not typically a major factor in consumers' food choices. Such supply-side innovations often trigger psychological barriers tied to naturalness, disgust, and contamination. Importantly, they reveal a pervasive say–do gap: consumers express support for societal benefits of such technologies but hesitate to adopt them personally. Other technologies mediate consumers' interactions with food (e.g., calorie tracking apps, digital ordering interfaces), and may even alter their physiology (e.g., GLP-1 agonists). These may be considered more demand-driven, because they tap into fundamental consumer needs such as taste, convenience, cost, nutrition, and weight control. Such technologies can influence the say–do gap by shaping consumers' decision processes, motivations, and preferences, thereby widening, narrowing, or even fundamentally transforming the say-do gap. Our review reveals that recent research has tended to focus on consumers’ responses to supply-side innovations. In contrast, we urge consumer researchers to take a broader view of the role of technology, in all its forms, in the interplay between consumers and food in everyday life.