A Melting Pot of Bagels and Tofu : A Study of Acculturation and Food Consumption

Today‟s globalization enables people to move across borders for various reasons. When people move there are consequences they need to face; local customs that need to be taken into consideration. As individuals undergo the process of adapting to a new culture, acculturation occurs. The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between the degree of acculturation and preference for American food. The study is applied on East Asian students residing in Texas, USA. Length of residence in the U.S. and sex are two demographic factors that are used to measure the influence on the degree of acculturation. The results show that these two factors are not statistically significant to explain the degree of acculturation. However, it was observed that there is a tendency that a longer length of residence indicates a higher degree of acculturation. The results also show that marginalization and integration are the two most frequent degrees of acculturation. Finally, even though there is a slight relationship between the degree of acculturation and preference for American food, it was not statistically significant. This thesis fills the gap of limited research of acculturation among East Asians and contributes to the theoretical explanation of how the degree of acculturation affects food consumption. It also helps businesses and market practitioners to better understand the East Asians as a target group