How to counter the reasons for rejecting insects as food ?

Although insects are nutritional and their consumption plays an economic and environmental role globally, they are viewed as inedible within French culture. The aim of this research is to study to what extent strategies for regulating people’s ambivalence (Health-Illness, Pleasure-Displeasure, Life-Death) would make it possible to counter the reasons for rejecting insects as food – danger, aversion and disgust – and to promote their acceptance. Using an original interdisciplinary theoretical framework, we examine whether linking studies on food behaviour in sociology on the one hand and in psychology on the other can resolve a marketing issue with regard to the culturally defined consumption of insects. A qualitative study conducted with 37 participants validates this theoretical approach and puts forward marketing suggestions for producers.