In the opening instructions of the survey, a detailed description
of the questionnaire was provided. Before starting the questionnaire,
two recruitment questions were given to the participants
(i.e. (1) ‘‘Do you eat chocolate?’’ (2) ‘‘Have you participated in
any market research on chocolate during the last 6 months?’’).
The aim was to first select the target group of chocolate consumers
and to de-select other respondents. Second, the respondents were
not allowed to have participated in a study on chocolate in the last
6 months to avoid biased answers. All the responses with missing
answers were deleted from the original database.
A total of 859 responses were received, 459 in Belgium and 400 in
Hungary. All data were collected within a 4 week time period. Crosssectional
data were collected through a web-based survey in Belgium
and Hungary. The respondents completed a self-administered