Eating with Eyes: Assessing the Importance of the Visual Perception of Consumers

Purchasing behavior is a kind of consuming behavior caused by visual stimulation of and attraction to a consumer. In other words, consumers are visual creatures. Although existing literature has explored the influences of the senses and perception on purchasing behavior, there is very little literature deeply exploring the influence of the visual sense on dish preferences in the catering industry. This study adopted purposive sampling and importance-performance analysis. A total of 38 questionnaires were collected, and Excel 2013 was used to analyze the influences of consumers' visual preferences on their levels of love for a dish. The study results show proper color matching can effectively increase the purchase behavior of consumers. The important preference factors include color contrast, harmony, shape matching, and the space design between food and receptacle. The study results can be used as references for the operational practices of the catering industry, and as an academic basis for subsequent studies on food aesthetics by researchers and teachers.