{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,9]],"date-time":"2025-10-09T10:10:20Z","timestamp":1760004620874,"version":"build-2065373602"},"posted":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,9]]},"group-title":"PsyArXiv","reference-count":0,"publisher":"Center for Open Science","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,9]],"date-time":"2025-10-09T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1759968000000},"content-version":"unspecified","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/legalcode"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":[],"abstract":"<p>Despite extensive research on magical thinking and contagion beliefs, no validated measure exists for assessing spiritual food contagion---the belief that non-material properties transfer to food through contact. We developed and validated the Spiritual Food Contagion Scale (SFCS) across a series of studies with a total sample of over 1,600 participants. Studies 1A-B (N = 100) generated an initial item pool through literature review and target audience evaluation. Study 2 (N = 398) employed exploratory factor analysis, revealing a robust two-factor structure: \\textit{essence transmission} (8 items) and \\textit{moral contamination} (7 items). Study 3 ($N$ = 504) confirmed this structure through confirmatory factor analysis and established convergent validity with related constructs. Study 4A (N = 351) demonstrated excellent test-retest reliability and predictive validity through experimental scenarios. Participants completed treatment preference ratings for flu illness and health optimization contexts across evidence-based, wellness, alternative, and pseudoscientific approaches. Higher SFCS scores were positively associated with a stronger preference for treatments in general, with particularly pronounced effects for pseudoscientific interventions. Study 4B ($N$ = 280) examined actual past usage of alternative medicine practices. Here, the SFCS significantly predicted alternative medicine usage, demonstrating that spiritual food contagion beliefs extend to real-world behaviors. The SFCS provides researchers with a psychometrically sound instrument for investigating spiritual food contagion beliefs and their implications for health-related decision-making and other domains of consumer behavior.<\/p>","DOI":"10.31234\/osf.io\/djc8b_v1","type":"posted-content","created":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,9]],"date-time":"2025-10-09T09:53:41Z","timestamp":1760003621000},"source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Food and Faith: Development and Psychometric Validation of the Spiritual Food Contagion Scale (SFCS)"],"prefix":"10.31234","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-1686-4933","authenticated-orcid":true,"given":"Michal","family":"Folwarczny","sequence":"first","affiliation":[]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-3651-9245","authenticated-orcid":true,"given":"Margarida","family":"Garrido","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-0283-8777","authenticated-orcid":true,"given":"Tobias","family":"Otterbring","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[]}],"member":"15934","container-title":[],"original-title":[],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,9]],"date-time":"2025-10-09T09:53:41Z","timestamp":1760003621000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/osf.io\/djc8b_v1"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,9]]},"references-count":0,"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.31234\/osf.io\/djc8b_v1","relation":{},"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,9]]},"subtype":"preprint"}}