Normal-sized for female chef, oversized for male chef? The effects of gender and body size stereotypes on food purchase intentions

Abstract

Given the prevalent occupational and gender stereotypes in food service industry, the research investigated how chefs’ body size and gender interact to impact consumers’ responses with two experiments. Results indicate that normal-sized female chefs and oversized male chefs lead to higher food purchase intentions. Customers’ perceived food tastiness and healthiness act as parallel mediators in driving the interaction of chefs’ body size and gender on purchase intentions. Furthermore, the research investigated the moderating role of health consciousness in the process and found that, it’s the differences in the perceived tastiness of food prepared by male chefs when customers health consciousness is low, and the variations in the perceived healthiness of food produced by female chefs when customers’ health consciousness is high, that drives the effect. This work expands research on occupational, gender, and body size stereotypes in the hospitality industry and offers guidance in strategizing chef body size and gender in restaurant marketing.