Implications of radioactive contamination near production sites for product quality-related risk perceptions and customer loyalty

To help understand consumer reactions to risks of product contamination caused by national disasters, this article studies radioactive contamination caused by the 2011 nuclear accident in Japan. Purchase situations confront consumers with products manufactured at production sites near contaminated regions of Japan. Consumers may either reduce their purchases of such products to protect their health, or increase their purchases to support suffering Japanese regions. Based on consumer data from Japan, Ecuador, Bolivia, and Sri Lanka, this article illuminates the influence of knowledge, information sources, past experience, and personal characteristics on purchase decisions. Consumers indeed reduce or increase their purchases as a response to the risk of radioactive contamination. While health risk estimates, past experience with natural disasters, and the country of residence most strongly influence this purchase decision, media reports and past opposition to radioactivity most strongly influence health risk estimates. Estimates of radioactivity levels are not influential.