Do Millennials REALLY care? 

Researchers find they claim to prefer organic, ethically sourced rainforest friendly chocolate - but only 14% then actually buy it

• First experiment asked about snacking habits
• Second asked about buying history of average food items
• Most would choose a lower fat but better tasting product (higher sugar) 

By STACY LIBERATORE FOR DAILYMAIL.COM

Millennials seem to be all talk and no action when it comes to choosing chocolate, according to a recent study.

Researchers found 89 percent claim to prefer organic, certified ethically sourced rainforest friendly chocolate brands, but only 14 percent have actually purchased them.

The study suggests that Millennials do not want to dish out the money for ethical or social factor labels.

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Researchers found 89 percent claim to prefer clean label chocolate brands, but only 14 percent have actually purchased them. The study suggests that Millennials do not want to dish out the money for ethical or social factor labels 

'Most participants showed little discriminability among factors like organic, certified ethical sourcing, and rainforest friendly, a strong preference for clean labels, and more concern about high levels of fat rather than sugar in their chocolate confections,' reads the study by Kansas State University published in the journal Food Quality and Preference..

'For most participants, their choice behavior reflected minimal concern for ethical factors whereas their public declarations in a focus group suggested otherwise.' 

QUESTIONS ASKED FOR FIRST EXPERIMENT

1. What characteristics regarding the ingredients of a candy are important to you? 

2. What nutritional aspects of a candy do you notice? 

3. Are you eating more or less candy than you did five years ago? How much? If there was a change, why? 

4. Are you eating more or fewer snack items than you did five years ago? How much? If there was a change, why? 

5. Is the character of a company or its leadership important in your choice of which company's products to purchase? If so, describe which factors have affected your choices in the past. 

6. Which of the following issues regarding food are important to you and why? Gluten-free, GMO, organic ingredients, use of pesticides, labor source (minors, low pay, ethical sourcing)? 

The team recruited 80 participants in focus groups and 214 for the choice studies, and assigned them to groups based on their age.

Younger Millennials were participants 18-25 years old and older Millennials were participants 26-35 years old.

'Participants who modestly preferred a candy with certain labels in our focus group may be unwilling to pay much more to obtain it,' Michael Young, professors at Kansas State University and lead author, said in a recent press release. 

The study's hypotheses was Millennials will show loyalty to healthier choices, be more concerned about the ingredients in the chocolate and want to know if the company's methods are ethical.

The team believes each sample of chocolate will be judged based on these factors, rather than how each one tastes.

However, they also believed these choices would also affect what they purchase on their own.

'We got the impression in the focus groups that Millennials were learning in college what attitudes were popular to express regarding their food,' Young said.

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The team recruited 80 participants in focus groups and 214 for the choice studies, and assigned them to groups based on their age. Younger Millennials were participants 18-25 years old and older Millennials were participants 26-35 years old.  Most common words found in group of older Millennials (pictured)

'But many of the older Millennials confessed that they often were not making purchases consistent with those expressed attitudes due to limited financial resources.'

The first experiment consisted on eight focus groups that involved questions about the participants general snaking habits such as 'What nutritional aspects of a candy do you notice' and 'What characteristics regarding the ingredients of a candy are important to you'.

All of the answers were carefully examined using word frequency analysis, which produced 75 most frequent words used during the discussion.

Discussions among younger Millennials commonly mentioned words like food, favorite, company, snack, fat, calories and words related to brand names and ingredients.

The common words for the older Millennials included company, ingredients, organic, bar, food, fair trade, vegan, price and words related to purchasing locations and packaging.

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The first experiment consisted on eight focus groups involving questions about  general snaking habits such as 'What nutritional aspects of a candy do you notice' and 'What characteristics regarding the ingredients of a candy are important to you'. Most common words found in group of older Millennials (pictured)

For the choice part of the study, participants were placed in six cluster based on the trends with their preferences: lower fat and pro-taste cluster (31 percent), low fat and some sugar cluster (19 percent), calorie and health conscious cluster (14 percent), socially conscientious cluster (14 percent), sweet and tasty cluster (11 percent) and pro-taste and anti-organic cluster (11 percent).

Five of the six, or 89 percent of the participants, preferred clean labels – smaller number of ingredients with pronounceable names.

'Nearly all MGs strongly preferred a clean over an unclean label, and companies are already making moves toward cleaner labels with both The Hershey Company and Nestle announcing new initiatives in February, 2015,' reports the study.

The study also proved that Millennials were much more tolerant of higher sugar contents, than they were about fat.

The pro-taste and anti-organic cluster was more in favor of higher fat and pushed away from organic and non-GMO products.

'I'm still trying to wrap my mind around what is really going on in the heads of the individuals in the pro-taste and anti-organic cluster,' Young said.

'They were mostly men with high self-control -- individuals who don't impulse buy -- and all they really cared about was the taste.'

The second part of the study asked participants in the choice group to complete questions about their history of buying average food items.

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Five of the six, or 89 percent of the participants, preferred clean labels – smaller number of ingredients with pronounceable names. The study also proved that Millennials were much more tolerant of higher sugar contents, than they were about fat

This helped Young and his team understand buying demographics and confirm the clusters.

For example, they found those in the calorie and health conscious clusters do not typically buy chocolate milk or cake mixes.

'The buying demographics validated the emerging picture of the clusters,' Young said. 'What they were doing in the context of the experiment really did correlate with what they were self-reporting as products that they were buying in the real world.'

The majority of the participants were from the Midwest, which Young said may influence the choices.

'Although older Millennials voice their interest in certified ethical chocolate, it is too early to tell if this is a fad or a shift in consumer preferences,' Young said.

'However, ethical sourcing is a laudable goal and companies should lay the groundwork for possible change in consumer preference.'

Researchers noted that it is unclear whether the social sensitivity of Millennials is a fad or a 'fundamental shift in consumer preferences that will be passed on to subsequent generations, or a cohort effect that will age along with Millennials'.