Page - 199 - in Critical Issues in Science, Technology and Society Studies - Conference Proceedings of the 17th STS Conference Graz 2018

speculated on a particularity of place: familiarity. We included the construct in our set of questions to see how familiarity with a space might affect choice to eat. Variety. Food intake “increases when participants are offered multiple foods with different sensory characteristics.” Wilkinson et al. (2013) termed it the “variety effect” (p. 175). Rolls et al. (1981) have also argued that variety of food might enhance intake during a meal. We see a signal which increases intake as also possibly one which might act as a spur to consume. Freshness. Food freshness is defined as “the level of closeness of a food product to its original state, in terms of distance, time and processing” (Gvili et al. 2015, p. 352). In a general sense, freshness plays a role in perception and assessment of food quality and thus has impact on food choice. Indeed, Gvili et al. indicated that food freshness has been shown by studies to be the leading cause of food choice. They also noted that food appeal and taste are mediated by freshness. In our study, we have conceptualized freshness as closeness-in- time to moment of purchase of food that is being prepared and sold on the street. Movement. Gvili et al. (2015) proffered arguments linking movement to food choice. Living animals move. Healthy ones display more motion than the diseased or infected. Thus, at both an intellectual and visible level, motion becomes associated with freshness. Growing edible plants also move in the wind as opposed to plants and fruits that have been plucked and have begun a post- harvest decay process. So, the same kind of intellectual and visible connection between movement and freshness could be applied to plants. The perception (and reality) extends to inanimate things (e.g. running water is fresher, has less bacterial proliferation, reduces build-up of chemical contamination) and food supplied by humans (e.g. items just brought in by the hunter or farmer are “fresher”). Items judged recently moving are considered fresher than those that have been in storage. As already indicated above, freshness encourages food choice – and desirableness might be linked to consumption. In our study, we went out a bit further and speculated on the role of movement as transferred to the consumer – particularly since walking while eating involves movement of the agent. We included it as an item on our questionnaire for respondents to see what association their own movements might have with choice to eat. Methods We have explored a model of the influence of social facilitation on eating in the street (Stephen, in press). Based on our parameters, we found a significant effect of social facilitation on [likelihood of] eating while walking in the street as expressed in increase in the number of eaters. We began by carrying out a survey of factors that might influence participants’ likelihood of eating in a street. Ten theoretical factors were contained, including factors described above as part of the conceptual framework of the current paper. Participants (n = 103; convenience sample) scored each factor as an instigator of eating while walking in the street. Each item was 199