Attitudes towards large numbers of choices in the food domain: A cross-cultural study of five countries in Europe and the USA

Telephone interviews of 6000 representative adults from France, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, the UK, and the USA, included two items on attitudes to variety. One had to do with whether the respondent preferred a choice of 10 versus 50 ice cream flavors. Ten choices were preferred by a majority of respondents from each country except the United States. A second item asked whether one expected a small or large menu choice in an upscale restaurant. A majority in all countries expected the small number of choices, but this expectation was lowest in the UK and USA. High variety expectations and preferences were weakly positively correlated (r=0.19). There was no substantial relation between a variety of demographic variables and variety preferences or expectations, except that older people were less inclined to prefer the high (50) variety in ice cream choices (r=0.28). The results suggest that the US, and the UK to some extent, focus on providing choices that cater to individual differences in preferences, whereas the continental European countries are more attached to communal eating values.