Inland or Coastal? Neural and Psychological Mechanisms Underlying Consumer Preferences for Seafood Origin in E-Commerce

Abstract

This study aims to investigate consumers’ preferences for inland and coastal seafood in the context of e-commerce, along with the underlying neural and psychological mechanisms influencing their online purchase decisions. By integrating questionnaire surveys with event-related potentials (ERPs), this research explores both behavioral patterns and neural responses associated with seafood choices. The survey results indicate that consumers have significantly higher purchase intentions for coastal seafood compared to inland seafood, which is consistent with the findings from behavioral experiment. Furthermore, the ERP data reveal that, compared to the inland seafood condition, the coastal seafood condition elicited lower N200 and N400 amplitudes, suggesting reduced cognitive conflict and semantic incongruence processing. Moreover, the higher LPP amplitude reflects greater emotional arousal. Based on cognitive dissonance theory, the study highlights the psychological conflicts and perceived risks related to inland seafood, providing neuroscientific insights into consumer decision making. These findings can support the optimization of market strategies for inland seafood in the growing e-commerce sector.

1. Introduction

Seafood is a vital component of the global food supply and plays a significant role in our daily diets [1,2,3]. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), global seafood consumption reached 162.5 million tons in 2021, with per capita annual consumption rising from 9.1 kg in 1961 to 20.7 kg in 2022 [4]. Coastal regions are renowned for offering fresh seafood, both wild-caught and farmed, which has long been the favored by consumers [5]. However, consumer preference begins to shift. In 2023, Japan announced its plans to release millions of tons of nuclear wastewater into the ocean [6], which has heightened consumer concerns about the safety of wild-caught seafood [7,8,9]. As a result, more consumers are turning to inland aquaculture seafood, driven by considerations related to environmental protection and personal health.

In recent years, advancements in aquaculture technology have brought increasing attention to seafood produced in inland regions. In 2022, global aquaculture production reached 130.9 million tons, surpassing capture fisheries for the first time. Asia accounted for 91.4% of the global aquaculture output, with China leading as the world’s largest aquaculture producer [4,10]. In China’s inland regions, seafood aquaculture is conducted using technologies such as artificial ponds and recirculating aquaculture systems. A notable innovation is the use of “artificial seawater” techniques in saline–alkali regions, such as Xinjiang and Gansu, enabling the development of specialized aquaculture. In 2023, Xinjiang alone produced 184,000 tons of seafood products [11]. These inland-origin products expand the diversity of seafood available to consumers, a trend that is particularly prominent in the context of e-commerce.

E-commerce has gradually emerged as a dynamic sector in the digital economy [12,13]. By breaking the limitations of time and geography in transactions [14,15], it has transformed consumer behavior and generated new growth opportunities for the seafood sector. In recent years, the rapid expansion of e-commerce platforms, especially short videos and live-streaming channels, has significantly broadened the market scope of seafood products [16]. E-commerce eliminates regional barriers, allowing consumers to access, compare, and purchase seafood globally [17]. Inland seafood has also benefited from this trend, taking advantage of its convenience to overcome geographical limitations and reach both broader domestic and international markets, thereby attracting an increasing number of consumers [18,19].

However, the perceived “bright future” of inland seafood may face challenges. Consumers often associate seafood with coastal regions due to long-standing traditional perceptions, which creates a cognitive disconnect when considering inland alternatives [20]. This association reinforces the belief that “inland regions are unsuitable for producing high-quality seafood” [21,22,23], a perception that contrasts with the current realities of inland seafood production [24,25] and contributes to cognitive dissonance. Furthermore, consumers typically lack sufficient knowledge about inland seafood, especially in online shopping contexts, which makes it difficult to evaluate product quality, safety, and origin [26]. This knowledge gap leads to information asymmetry that undermines purchase intentions [27,28]. The perishable nature of seafood further compounds consumer concerns, as issues related to cold-chain logistics, extended transportation times, and freshness increase the perceived risks associated with ordering inland seafood online [29,30]. At the same time, growing concerns over potential nuclear contamination in coastal seafood add another layer of complexity to consumer decision-making processes [7,8]. Confronted with uncertainty surrounding inland seafood and anxiety about the safety of coastal seafood, the following important question arises: which type of seafood are consumers more likely to prefer?

This research addresses the following two fundamental questions: (1) In the context of e-commerce, do consumers exhibit a stronger preference for coastal seafood over inland seafood? (2) What psychological and neural mechanisms underlie these preferences? Through this inquiry, the study aims to enhance the understanding of consumer behavior in seafood selection and to identify the key psychological factors that influence purchasing decisions.

To address these research questions, the study integrates questionnaire-based surveys with event-related potential (ERP) techniques to examine consumer preferences and the underlying decision-making processes. Initially, questionnaires were employed to collect data on consumer attitudes and choices between inland and coastal seafood, offering a quantitative overview of preferences patterns. However, traditional self-report methods often fall short of capturing the underlying psychological processes with sufficient accuracy. To overcome this limitation, the ERP technique was employed to explore the cognitive and emotional mechanisms that influence seafood-related purchasing decisions in greater depth. Consumer decision making is a complex cognitive process that involves conflict detection, emotional arousal, motivational dynamics, and stimulus evaluation [31,32,33]. ERPs, with their high temporal resolution, allow for the real-time capture of subtle neural changes, offering valuable insights into the mechanisms of consumer decision making [34,35]. In addition, ERPs can help reduce the noise inherent in behavioral data and reveal latent psychological responses that may not be accessible through conventional methods [36,37]. ERPs consist of multiple components (e.g., N2, N4, N170, P2, LPP), each linked to distinct cognitive functions. Drawing on prior research in decision neuroscience [36,37], this study focuses on the following three components: the N200, associated with cognitive conflict, the N400, linked to semantic incongruence processing, and the late positive potential (LPP), which reflects emotional arousal. By incorporating these measures, this research aims to provide a more comprehensive and nuanced understanding of consumer decision-making processes that extend beyond the reach of traditional approaches.

2. Literature Review and Hypothesis Development

2.1. Literature Review

Existing literature on seafood consumption preferences has primarily focused on the mechanisms underlying consumer choice behavior and related actions, with several key thematic areas emerging. First, researchers have investigated how specific seafood characteristics—such as flavor, appearance, accessibility, and place of origin—affect consumers’ purchase intentions [5,38,39]. In addition, prior studies have examined variables like consumer attitudes, perceived behavioral control, and subjective norms to determine their influence on seafood purchasing behavior [40,41]. Social and lifestyle factors, including dietary customs linked to residential location and family members’ taste preferences, have also been recognized as significant in shaping seafood purchasing decisions [42,43]. Moreover, price-related research has looked into how consumers respond to price volatility and their readiness to pay more for certain types of seafood, including imported or organic varieties [44,45,46]. With the expansion of e-commerce, these influencing factors have taken new forms in digital consumption contexts [47,48,49]. In online scenarios, consumers tend to rely more heavily on visual presentation, product origin indicators, and traceability data to make up for the absence of direct physical inspection [50,51].

Product origin has long been a core variable in consumer research, directly influencing consumers’ perceptions of product quality, safety, and credibility [23,52,53,54,55]. Evidence suggests that origin cues often guide consumer purchasing behavior [51,56]; for example, shoppers tend to pay more for goods from developed nations than for those from developing ones [57,58,59]. As globalization continues, the role of origin in shaping agricultural product choices has grown in significance [55,60,61]. Consumers increasingly depend on origin labels to judge whether agricultural items meet standards for quality, safety, and health compatibility [62]. Similar to agricultural products, seafood consumption is also significantly influenced by origin factors [63]. Amid rising concerns about marine pollution and varied aquaculture practices, origin information has become central to how consumers evaluate seafood safety and quality. Most existing studies on seafood origin concentrate on broad consumption trends, focusing on single indicators, like country-of-origin labels or specific origin traits [64,65,66]. However, it often overlooks the concept of origin differences in seafood itself—particularly the distinctions between inland and coastal seafood—and their potential impact on consumer choices.

Inland seafood has experienced rapid development in recent years, gaining increasing visibility, particularly through digital platforms. Still, studies examining consumer behavior in this domain are scarce, with much of the literature directed at technical and production-related issues [67]. This research gap is noteworthy, especially considering persistent perception challenges surrounding inland seafood. The market prospects for inland seafood are not without challenges. Consumers’ traditional perceptions of seafood are often closely associated with coastal regions, with high-quality seafood typically thought to originate from coastal or marine environments [20,21,22,23]. In contrast, inland seafood, due to its different geographical conditions, may be perceived by consumers as originating from an environment that is “unsuitable for producing high-quality seafood”—an impression that becomes even more pronounced on e-commerce platforms [23,68], where the lack of effective trust-building mechanisms can easily lead to consumer skepticism. This preconceived notion creates a conflict with the actual presence of inland seafood [24,25]. When consumers encounter inland seafood, they may experience psychological discomfort, questioning whether its quality can compare to that of coastal seafood [23,69].

Cognitive dissonance theory, originally proposed by Festinger, posits that individuals experience psychological discomfort when there is an inconsistency between their beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors [70]. To alleviate this discomfort, individuals are inclined to adjust either their attitudes or behaviors to restore internal consistency [71]. Prior studies suggest that consumers may reduce dissonance in food-related decisions by avoiding products perceived as low quality or inconsistent with expectations [72]. A growing body of the literature has demonstrated that cognitive dissonance significantly influences purchasing behavior across carious consumption domains [73,74,75]. Moreover, the limited consumer knowledge regarding the quality, safety, and production conditions of inland seafood leads to information asymmetry, which in turn, increases uncertainty in their purchasing decisions [76,77]. Prior research has highlighted that seafood, as a highly perishable product, requires efficient cold-chain logistics, and inadequate freshness during transportation can reduce consumer trust [78]. These risk perceptions can further intensify cognitive dissonance, ultimately influencing consumer evaluation and purchase intentions [79].

While both inland and coastal seafood fall under the broader category of aquaculture, consumers often interpret them differently due to the variations in production environments, freshness expectations, and regional associations [21,22,23,24,25,68]. Inland seafood is frequently associated with limited transparency and a mismatch between consumer expectations and available product information, which may negatively influence perceptions of quality and safety [72,73,74]. In contrast, while coastal seafood has traditionally been favored, it is now increasingly subject to consumer scrutiny due to growing concerns over marine pollution and ecological degradation, which challenge its perceived trustworthiness [7,8]. Although prior research has addressed isolated factors, such as origin cues, perceived risk, and quality judgments, few have offered a comprehensive investigation into the role of geographic origin in shaping consumer purchase behavior—particularly from cognitive and psychological perspectives [20,21,22,23,75]. This gap is especially relevant in the evolving e-commerce landscape, where consumers rely heavily on limited, often symbolic information to make rapid decisions.

2.2. Behavioural Hypotheses

As outlined in the literature review, the impact of origin on consumers’ purchase intentions is significant [52,80]. In the context of seafood consumption, traditional perceptions strongly associate high-quality seafood with coastal regions [81]. In contrast, inland seafood, due to geographic location and conflicts with traditional beliefs, leads to cognitive dissonance among consumers. This cognitive dissonance significantly influences consumers’ purchase intentions [73,74,75,82], with consumers tending to choose coastal seafood that aligns more closely with their existing perceptions [83,84,85]. Moreover, due to the relatively low market awareness and limited transparency of inland seafood, consumers have limited knowledge about its quality, safety, and origin. Especially on e-commerce platforms, consumers face greater difficulty in accessing comprehensive and accurate information. This information asymmetry and perceived risk further influence consumers’ purchasing intentions [76,77,86,87].

Additionally, although coastal seafood faces pollution risks, it retains inherent market advantages. As a long-established primary source of seafood, the traditional image of coastal seafood origins, its freshness, and strong market recognition have built a high level of trust and a positive image in consumers’ minds [43,88,89]. Consumers may mitigate concerns about pollution by opting for coastal seafood that is quality-certified. Therefore, we hypothesize the following:

H1: 

Consumers prefer seafood from coastal regions over inland seafood.

2.3. ERP Hypothesis

Based on the hypothesis presented above, consumers may exhibit a stronger preference for coastal seafood compared to inland seafood in e-commerce, which may involve a dual process of cognitive conflict and emotional response. On the one hand, consumers experience cognitive conflict due to the non-traditional nature of inland seafood [70,71,73]. On the other hand, coastal seafood, with its traditional image and market recognition, is more likely to evoke positive emotional responses from consumers [20,21,22,23]. To explore the neural mechanisms underlying this process, this study focused on three ERP indicators—N200 (cognitive conflict) [90], N400 (semantic inconsistency processing) [91], and LPP (emotional arousal) [92]—in order to more precisely reveal the neural mechanisms of cognitive conflict, information integration, and emotional responses that consumers experience when choosing between inland and coastal seafood in e-commerce.

2.3.1. N200 Hypothesis

In event-related potential (ERP) research, the N200 component has been widely used to detect neural responses to cognitive conflict during decision making [90,93,94,95]. The N200 is a negative wave component occurring within 200–350 ms after stimulus presentation, with its amplitude closely related to the intensity of conflict perceived by an individual during information processing [96,97,98,99]. A large body of research has shown that, when decision-related information conflicts with an individual’s expectations or beliefs, the amplitude of the N200 is significantly enhanced, reflecting the neural effort involved in resolving the cognitive conflict [94,100,101].

In this study, we hypothesize that, when consumers are faced with inland seafood, the incongruence between its origin information and consumers’ traditional beliefs (i.e., high-quality seafood should originate from coastal regions) may trigger greater cognitive conflict, particularly in the context of e-commerce where direct sensory perception is lacking, resulting in a higher N200 amplitude [102,103,104,105,106]. In contrast, coastal seafood, due to its traditional image and greater market recognition, is more aligned with consumer expectations, which may result in lower cognitive conflict and a lower N200 amplitude. Therefore, we propose the following hypothesis:

H2: 

The coastal seafood condition will elicit lower N200 amplitudes than the inland seafood condition.

2.3.2. N400 Hypothesis

The N400 component is typically associated with information integration and semantic inconsistency processing [91,107,108,109,110]. Research has shown that, when individuals encounter inconsistent or unexpected semantic information, the N400 amplitude increases, indicating a higher cognitive load during information integration [108,111,112]. In the consumer decision-making process, the N400 may reflect the cognitive load consumers experience when evaluating and integrating information from different origins [113].

In this study, we hypothesize that there will be a significant difference in N400 amplitude when consumers are presented with coastal versus inland seafood. Specifically, coastal seafood is typically associated with traditional perceptions of high quality and freshness, and consumers habitually link “coastal origin” with “seafood”. As a result, consumers are able to integrate origin information more easily when confronted with this type of information, reflecting lower cognitive load and smaller N400 amplitudes [107]. In contrast, inland seafood, due to its geographical and production environment differences, may deviate from consumers’ traditional image of high-quality seafood [23,68]. On e-commerce platforms, such origin information is often prominently highlighted through titles, tags, and other formats [114,115,116], which further activate consumers’ existing cognitive frameworks [117], leading to larger N400 amplitudes. Therefore, we propose the following hypothesis:

H3: 

The coastal seafood condition will elicit lower N400 amplitudes than the inland seafood condition.

2.3.3. LPP Hypothesis

The late positive potential (LPP) is a positive ERP component distributed across the central–parietal region, typically peaking between 600 and 1000 milliseconds after stimulus onset [92,118,119,120]. Research indicates that the LPP is highly sensitive to the emotional intensity of stimuli, with both positive and negative emotional stimuli eliciting significantly higher LPP amplitudes compared to neutral stimuli. Thus, the LPP has become an important marker for studying the time course of emotional responses [121,122,123,124]. Furthermore, the LPP amplitude increases with higher levels of emotional arousal, further reflecting the intensity of the emotional response [124,125].

In the field of consumer behavior research, as a neural indicator of emotional arousal, the LPP can reveal the emotional intensity of consumers when faced with different choices and its impact on decision making [123,126,127]. Specifically, the amplitude of the LPP is positively correlated with the intensity of emotional arousal [128,129]. When consumers are confronted with attractive choices, emotional arousal is typically stronger [130], leading to an increase in LPP amplitude [131]. This suggests that for products that are familiar or have higher market recognition, consumers’ emotional arousal is usually stronger, which in turn enhances their willingness to purchase.

In this study, we hypothesize that consumers may experience different levels of emotional arousal when faced with the choice between coastal and inland seafood and that these emotional responses will influence their purchase intentions. Coastal seafood, which is typically associated with traditional perceptions of high quality and freshness [20,22], and this perception is further reinforced on e-commerce platforms [68], which is likely to evoke stronger emotional arousal, leading to higher LPP amplitudes during the later stages of the decision-making process, particularly in the evaluation of purchase intentions [106,121,122]. In contrast, inland seafood, due to its geographic and production environment differences, may deviate from consumers’ traditional image of high-quality seafood [23], resulting in lower emotional arousal and purchase intention, reflected in smaller LPP amplitudes. Therefore, we propose the following hypothesis:

H4: 

The coastal seafood condition will elicit higher LPP amplitudes than the inland seafood condition.

2.4. Overview of the Research

We adopted a combined approach, utilizing both questionnaire surveys (Study 1) and event-related potentials (ERPs) (Study 2) to comprehensively explore the behavioral and neural mechanisms underlying consumers’ choices between inland and coastal seafood in e-commerce. In Study 1, a questionnaire was used to collect quantitative data on consumers’ purchase intentions for inland and coastal seafood, offering initial insights into their attitude preferences and purchase intentions, while providing preliminary support for H1 with a relatively large sample. Building on this foundation, Study 2 employed ERPs to examine consumers’ psychological and neural responses during decision making, replicating support for H1, while also testing H2, H3, and H4. By integrating these two methods, the study sought to uncover preference differences for seafood from different origins and their underlying neural mechanisms.

3. Study 1

Study 1 aimed to preliminarily explore the differences in consumers’ purchase intentions between inland and coastal seafood in e-commerce, providing foundational data for the subsequent ERP experiments. This study focused on the impact of origin information on consumers’ purchase intentions, comparing their preferences for coastal and inland seafood.

3.1. Procedure and Measures

Study 1 recruited participants through the online survey platform Credamo (https://www.credamo.com, accessed on 30 November 2024). The questionnaire interface simulated a simplified online seafood purchasing scenario by presenting participants with the product image, name, and place of origin. The study employed a between-subject design, with participants randomly assigned to either the “inland seafood” or “coastal seafood” condition. All study variables (e.g., images, descriptions) were kept consistent, except for the origin information. The selected stimuli focused on seafood species that are commonly farmed in both inland and coastal regions. Given the limited number of such overlapping categories, we chose representative types with relatively high inland production [11] and consumer familiarity. To mitigate the potential influence of food form (raw vs. cooked) on consumers’ purchase intentions, this study included two images of cooked seafood and two images of raw seafood for testing (see Figure 1). To more effectively measure consumers’ purchase intentions, the study drew on methodologies from the existing literature and designed the following three items [132]: “You are likely to consider purchasing this seafood”, “You would be willing to purchase this seafood”, and “You would recommend this seafood to others”. Each item was rated on a 5-point Likert scale (1 = strongly disagree, 5 = strongly agree), with the composite score used to assess the overall purchase intention.

3.2. Participants

A total of 400 participants took part in the questionnaire survey, and they were randomly assigned to the inland seafood group or the coastal seafood group, with 200 participants in each group. During data collection, invalid responses were excluded, including those that failed the attention check or had exceptionally short or long completion times. Specifically, to identify abnormal completion times, we first calculated the mean and standard deviation (SD) of the total response time. Participants whose completion times fell outside the range of mean ± 1 SD were excluded, as these extreme values were considered indicative of insufficient engagement (too fast) or possible distraction (too slow). Consequently, the final dataset comprised 345 valid questionnaires, with 173 participants assigned to the inland seafood group and 172 to the coastal seafood group. The sample exhibited broad geographic diversity, encompassing multiple provinces and municipalities, including 22 inland provinces and 7 coastal provinces. Females constituted 73.6% of the sample, and participants from a range of age groups were represented, with those aged 21–30 accounting for 51.0% of the total.

3.3. Results of Study 1

The questionnaire data were analyzed using IBM SPSS statistics (Version 27), with independent samples t-tests conducted to examine the significant differences in purchase intention scores between the “coastal seafood group” and the “inland seafood group”. The results are presented in

Table 1. Group statistics of purchase intention.

Origin	N	Mean	Std. Deviation	Std. Error Mean
Coastal	172	3.555	0.6198	0.0473
Inland	173	3.182	0.9178	0.0698

and

Table 2. Independent samples test.

	Levene’s Test for Homogeneity of Variance		t-Test for Equality of Means
								95% Confidence Interval of the Difference
Test	F	Significance	t	Degrees of Freedom	Significance (Two-Tailed)	Average Difference	Standard Error of Difference	Lower Limit	Upper Limit
Average Value	33.383	0	4.423	343	0	0.37315	0.08437	−0.2072	0.5391
Non-Average Value			4.428	302.063	0	0.37315	0.08428	−0.2073	0.539

.

An independent samples t-test was conducted to examine the differences in consumer purchase intentions between the coastal and inland seafood groups. The results showed that the mean purchase intention for the coastal seafood group (M = 3.56, SD = 0.62) was significantly higher than that for the inland seafood group (M = 3.18, SD = 0.92), t(302.06) = 4.43, p < 0.001. The mean difference was 0.37, with a 95% confidence interval of [0.21, 0.54], indicating a significant difference in purchase intentions between the two groups. Overall, the analysis indicates that coastal seafood holds a higher purchase intention among consumers.

3.4. Brief Discussion of Stydy1

This study validated the significant difference in purchase intentions between coastal and inland seafood through significance analysis and effect size estimation, providing preliminary support for Hypothesis 1, which posits that consumers prefer seafood from coastal regions over inland seafood. However, behavioral data alone cannot fully uncover the psychological and neural mechanisms underlying consumer decision making. Therefore, Study 2 further incorporated event-related potential (ERP) technology to explore the deeper neural mechanisms driving this purchasing preference.

4. Study 2

The primary objective of Study 2 was to utilize event-related potential (ERP) technology to accomplish the following two key aims: first, to replicate the behavioral findings of Study 1, and second, to explore the deeper neural mechanisms underlying this purchasing preference and test Hypotheses 2, 3, and 4.

4.1. Materials and Methods

4.1.1. Subjects

In total, 35 right-handed college students, aged 18–26 years (M = 21.571, SD = 1.989), including 21 males, from Ningbo University participated in the study. All participants were native Chinese speakers with normal or corrected-to-normal vision and had no history of neurological disorders or mental illnesses. Upon completing the experiment, participants were compensated with 40 RMB. Due to excessive ERP artifacts, the data from 5 participants were discarded, leaving 30 valid participants in the final analysis. All participants provided written informed consent, and the study was approved by the Institutional Review Board of the Academy of Neuroeconomics and Neuromanagement at Ningbo University. The research was conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki [133].

4.1.2. Materials

The experiment included 80 trials, each featuring a seafood product as the stimulus. To ensure ecological validity, the stimuli were selected from seafood categories that are confirmed to be farmed in both inland and coastal regions, with particular emphasis on those currently cultivated in inland aquaculture. As the number of such species is limited, we included nearly all available types in our stimulus set. Specifically, a set of 10 distinct seafood images served as the base materials, with each image repeated across different conditions to minimize repetition bias. All stimuli were centrally presented on the screen with a uniform resolution of 360 × 270 pixels to maintain visual consistency. To standardize the stimuli, all seafood items were aquaculture-based and could originate from either inland or coastal environments. The origin information—classified as either inland or coastal seafood—was displayed above each image. Other visual elements, such as image size, font, color, and language were controlled to ensure consistency in appearance and formatting (see Figure 2). The full set of stimuli was divided into two blocks of 40 trials each, corresponding to the two origin conditions. Within each block, the presentation order was pseudo-randomized to reduce predictability.

4.1.3. Procedure

Participants were informed that they needed to view a picture of seafood and its origin. Next, they would see a progress bar from 1 to 7. At this time, participants would need to press the button to choose their purchase intention. Participants sat comfortably in a small and sound-isolated room, 100 cm away from the computer screen where stimuli were concentrated. Participants were provided with a keyboard through which they could respond.

As shown in Figure 3, a fixed cross appeared for 600–800 ms at the beginning of each trial, followed by a 400–600 ms blank screen. After that, the picture of seafood and its origin was displayed for 3000 ms, followed by a 400–600 ms blank screen. Later, the subjects were asked to select their purchase intention (1–7). Electroencephalograms (EEGs) were recorded from the subjects throughout the experiment.

Participants were asked to minimize blinks as well as head and body movement during the experiment. They were asked to choose their purchase intention by pressing the button. They could press button 1 to decrease purchase intention, button 3 to increase purchase intention, and button 2 to confirm purchase intention. The purchase intention level was divided from 1 to 7, where 1 means very unwilling, 7 means very willing, and the initial willingness was 4. In order to familiarize themselves with the experimental process, the experiment started after 8 practice trials. Before the experiment, participants were asked to fill out a questionnaire to record their basic personal and economic status.

4.1.4. Electroencephalogram (EEG) Recordings and Analysis

EEG recordings were made using 64 Ag/AgCl electrodes mounted in an elastic cap connected to a Neuroscan SynAmps2 Amplifier (Curry 8, Neurosoft Labs, Inc., Compumedics Limited, Abbotsford, VIC, Australia) with a sample rate of 500 Hz. The ground electrode was placed at a location on the forehead between FPz and Fz in the standard international 10–20 system, with the left mastoid used as the reference. Vertical electro-oculograms were recorded using a pair of electrodes placed 10 mm above and below the left eye, while horizontal electro-oculograms were recorded with another pair of electrodes placed 10 mm to the right of the right eye and to the left of the left eye. The experiment did not begin until electrode impedances were below 5 kΩ.

The EEG data were transferred off-line for analysis using the left and right mastoid references. Electro-oculogram artifacts were corrected off-line using the method proposed by Semlitsch et al. [134]. EEG recordings were digitally filtered with a low-pass filter at 30 Hz. Epochs were created beginning 200 ms prior to the onset of fundraising information pages and continuing for 800 ms after this onset. Trials with bursts of electromyographic activity, peak-to-peak deflection exceeding ±100 μV, and amplifier clipping were excluded.

For the seafood and its origin stage, data were averaged into two conditions, inland seafood and coastal seafood. The Greenhouse–Geisser correction was applied when the sphericity assumption was violated in the appropriate parts of the ANOVA [135]. Partial eta-squared (η²p) values were used to demonstrate the effect size in ANOVA models, where 0.05 represents a small effect, 0.1 represents a medium effect, and 0.2 represents a large effect [136].

4.2. Results of Study 2

4.2.1. Behavior Results

The results of the participants’ purchase intentions are shown in Figure 4. A pairwise t-test was performed to analyze the average purchase intention of the two groups. The result showed a significant difference [t(1,29) = 4.808, p < 0.001], with inland seafood [M = 3.879, SD = 0.898] having a lower purchase intention than coastal seafood [M = 4.455, SD = 0.437], as shown in Figure 2.

4.2.2. ERP Results: Electroencephalogram Activity Elicited by the Origin of Seafood: N200 (300–350 ms)

We conducted a two-way 2 (origin of seafood: inland seafood vs. coastal seafood) × 9 (electrodes: F1/z/2, FC1/z/2, C1/z/2) repeated measures ANOVA for the mean N200 amplitude. The main effect of the origin of seafood was observed [F(1,29) = 5.329, p = 0.028, η²p = 0.155], indicating that the average N200 amplitude of coastal seafood [M = −1.605 μV, SE = 0.890 μV] is smaller (negative polarity: when the voltage value is larger, the amplitude is smaller) than inland seafood [M = −3.319 μV, SE = 0.989 μV], as shown in Figure 5.

4.2.3. ERP Results: Electroencephalogram Activity Elicited by the Origin of Seafood: N400 (430–480 ms)

We conducted a two-way 2 (origin of seafood: inland seafood vs. coastal seafood) × 9 (electrodes: C1/z/2, CP1/z/2, P1/z/2) repeated measures ANOVA for the mean N400 amplitude. There was a significant main effect for the origin of seafood [F(1,29) = 10.139, p = 0.003, η²p = 0.259], indicating that the average N400 amplitude of coastal seafood [M = 6.612 μV, SE = 0.715 μV] is smaller (negative polarity: when the voltage value is larger, the amplitude is smaller) than inland seafood [M = 3.306 μV, SE = 1.089 μV], as shown in Figure 6.

4.2.4. ERP Results: Electroencephalogram Activity Elicited by the Origin of Seafood: LPP (550–700 ms)

Similarly, we conducted a two-way 2 (origin of seafood: inland seafood vs. coastal seafood) × 9 (electrodes: C1/z/2, CP1/z/2, P1/z/2) repeated measures ANOVA for the mean LPP amplitude. There was a significant main effect for the origin of seafood [F(1,29) = 8.568, p = 0.007, η²p = 0.228], indicating that the average LPP amplitude of inland seafood [M = 5.482 μV, SE = 1.463 μV] is smaller than coastal seafood [M = 9.435 μV, SE = 0.848 μV], as shown in Figure 6.

4.3. Brief Discussion of Study 2

The primary objective of Study 2 was to employ ERP technology to achieve the following two main goals: first, to replicate the findings of Study 1 from a behavioral perspective, and second, to explore the deeper neural mechanisms underlying this purchasing preference and test Hypotheses 2, 3, and 4. Consistent with Hypothesis 1, consumers preferred seafood from coastal regions over inland seafood. Additionally, Study 2 further confirmed that, compared to the inland seafood condition, the lower N200 and N400 amplitudes in the coastal seafood condition reflected reduced cognitive conflict and semantic incongruence processing, while the higher LPP amplitude indicated stronger emotional arousal.

5. Discussion

This research employed a mixed-methods approach, integrating questionnaire surveys with an event-related potential (ERPs) technique to examine how origin cues influence consumer purchase intentions toward inland versus coastal seafood in the context of e-commerce. Results from both Study 1 and Study 2 consistently indicated that participants exhibited a stronger preference for seafood originating from coastal regions. In Study 2, the ERP analysis revealed significant differences in neural activity across conditions. Specifically, variations were observed in the N200 component, associated with cognitive conflict; the N400 component, related to semantic incongruence processing; and the late positive potential (LPP), which reflects emotional responses and evaluative processing. The subsequent sections present a detailed discussion of these findings and their theoretical and practical implications.

5.1. Discussion of the Questionnaire

The results of the questionnaire survey confirmed that consumers exhibited a significantly stronger preference for coastal seafood compared to inland seafood, supporting Hypothesis 1. This finding indicates that origin information functions as a key heuristic in consumers’ evaluation processes. Several factors may contribute to the formation of this preference, including established consumption habits, psychological identification, expectations regarding freshness, and the strong association between traditional perceptions and geographical origin. In the context of e-commerce platforms, coastal seafood tends to align more closely with consumers’ expectations of “ideal attributes”, such as freshness, authenticity, and trustworthiness. This alignment enhances consumers’ confidence in their purchase decisions. In contrast, inland seafood encounters more pronounced market challenges, not only due to geographical constraints but also as a result of consumers’ cognitive biases.

While Study 1 provided insights into consumer purchase preferences through a large-scale questionnaire survey, Study 2 aimed to further investigate and validate the underlying psychological and neural mechanisms using ERP technology. This approach was intended to clarify whether the observed preferences are driven by cognitive fluency, emotional arousal, or conflict processing, thereby providing a more comprehensive understanding of the factors influencing seafood-related decision making.

5.2. Discussion of the Behavioural Hypotheses

The behavioral findings further underscore the pivotal role of origin information in shaping consumers’ purchasing behavior. While prior research has recognized that consumers may exhibit preferences for certain seafood origins, the current study provides empirical evidence of a robust and consistent preference for coastal seafood, aligning with the results observed in the preceding survey.

This preference is likely driven by consumers’ long-standing associations between coastal origin and favorable product attributes, such as superior freshness, safety, and overall quality. In online retail settings, these associations are often reinforced through marketing cues that portray coastal seafood as more credible and trustworthy. In contrast, inland seafood is more likely to elicit greater skepticism, as consumers may have concerns regarding freshness, logistical complexity, and unfamiliarity with production environments. These concerns collectively elevate perceived risk, thereby reducing purchase intention.

Overall, the findings suggest that origin cues function not merely as superficial branding elements but play a substantive role in shaping consumers’ cognitive evaluations of seafood products. Coastal seafood appears to align more closely with consumers’ internalized standards of quality, thereby enhancing its attractiveness in purchase decisions. In contrast, inland seafood must contend with both informational asymmetries and entrenched perceptual biases—challenges that are particularly pronounced in the trust-sensitive context of e-commerce.

5.3. Discussion of the ERP Hypotheses

5.3.1. N200

The N200 findings support Hypothesis 2 and underscore the role of cognitive conflict in how consumers process seafood origin information. Previous studies have indicated that the N200 component is closely associated with cognitive conflict during decision making, with greater conflict leading to increased N200 amplitudes [90,93,94,95,106]. Moreover, when individuals are presented with options perceived as riskier or more uncertain, the N200 response tends to be more pronounced [137].

In the present study, inland seafood elicited significantly greater N200 amplitudes compared to coastal seafood, indicating that participants experienced a higher degree of cognitive conflict when evaluating inland products. This elevated response likely reflects a disconnect between inland seafood and consumers’ preexisting notions of premium-quality seafood. Coastal origin has, over time, become a familiar signal of freshness, safety, and authenticity—especially in online retail environments, where such attributes are visually and linguistically reinforced. In contrast, inland seafood challenges this framework, triggering doubts and prompting consumers to expend greater cognitive effort to resolve the incongruity.

These findings can be interpreted through the lens of cognitive dissonance theory, which posits that psychological discomfort arises when individuals encounter information that contradicts their expectations. In this context, factors such as perceived limitations in freshness, logistical challenges, and a lack of brand familiarity contribute to this dissonance. The heightened N200 response captures the neural cost of processing these conflicting cues. Overall, the results highlight the significance of origin-based dissonance in shaping consumer evaluations at the neurocognitive level.

5.3.2. N400

The ERP results revealed a significantly lower N400 amplitude in the coastal seafood condition compared to the inland seafood condition, supporting Hypothesis 3. The previous literature has established that the N400 component is particularly sensitive to semantic or conceptual incongruity, with larger amplitudes typically reflecting increased cognitive effort during the integration of unexpected or inconsistent information [91,107,108,109,110]. In this study, the attenuated N400 response to coastal seafood suggests that its origin aligns more closely with consumers’ preexisting mental representations of seafood, thereby facilitating more fluent information processing and reducing cognitive load.

Such facilitation appears especially relevant in digital shopping contexts, where consumers often depend on heuristic-based judgments and rapid assessments [138]. In such contexts, origin labels serve as salient cues that help consumers quickly match external information with internal expectations. In contrast, the inland seafood condition elicited a significantly greater N400 amplitude, suggesting that the inland origin deviates from established consumer expectations regarding seafood quality. This deviation likely disrupts automatic cognitive processing and requires greater evaluative effort.

Cognitive dissonance theory offers an additional explanatory framework. According to this theory, psychological discomfort arises when external information conflicts with pre-existing beliefs [70,71]. Within the e-commerce context, a misalignment between product origin cues and entrenched assumptions about seafood quality may heighten this discomfort, prompting consumers to allocate more cognitive resources to resolve the inconsistency [73,74,75]. The enhanced N400 activity observed in response to inland seafood reflects this intensified cognitive engagement. These neural findings are consistent with the behavioral results, which demonstrated a clear consumer preference for seafood sourced from coastal regions.

5.3.3. LPP

The late positive potential (LPP) component is widely recognized as a reliable neural marker of emotional arousal, reflecting sustained attentional engagement with emotionally salient stimuli at high temporal resolution. Prior research has consistently shown that LPP amplitudes increase in response to stimuli that elicit strong affective engagement, particularly in consumer decision-making contexts [123,126,127,128,129,137].

In the present study, the coastal seafood condition elicited significantly higher LPP amplitudes compared to the inland seafood condition, indicating greater emotional activation during the neural processing of seafood stimuli. This difference may stem from consumers’ long-held associations between coastal origin and favorable product attributes—such as freshness, safety, and premium quality—which facilitate positive affective responses. In the context of e-commerce, these associations are often amplified by marketing elements, including traceability claims, visual imagery, and product labeling, thereby enhancing emotional appeal and strengthening purchase motivation.

By contrast, inland seafood appears to generate weaker emotional engagement. Its deviation from the typical consumer image of high-quality seafood, combined with lower familiarity and greater perceived uncertainty, may diminish emotional resonance and reduce sustained attention, as reflected in the attenuated LPP response.

These findings may also be interpreted through the framework of cognitive dissonance theory. When product information aligns with prior beliefs—such as coastal origin corresponding to expectations of quality—psychological consistency is preserved, facilitating stronger emotional responses. Conversely, when origin cues deviate from these expectations, as in the case of inland seafood, consumers may experience psychological discomfort and engage in compensatory cognitive processing. This increased cognitive load may suppress emotional arousal, contributing to the observed reduction in the LPP amplitude. Overall, the LPP results provide additional support for Hypothesis 4, underscoring the interplay between origin-based expectations and emotional engagement in shaping consumer decision making.

5.4. Theoretical and Pratical Implications

At the theoretical level, this study advances origin-related research by filling a notable gap in the literature: the lack of focused investigation into how inland versus coastal origins distinctly influences consumer decision making [51]. While prior studies have often emphasized broad geographic indicators or international comparisons [51,52,53,54,55,56], research remains scarce on how differences in inland and coastal origins affect consumer purchase intentions, particularly in the context of seafood, a product category that is strongly dependent on regional origin. By directly comparing consumer responses to inland and coastal seafood, this study expands the conceptual scope of origin-related research and demonstrates its relevance in the evolving context of e-commerce. Moreover, it enriches the literature by showing that origin cues influence not only declarative judgements but also underlying psychological and neural mechanisms.

This study addresses methodological limitations in previous origin-related research, which has often relied on self-reports or behavioral data with limited insight into underlying psychological mechanisms [23,52,53,54,55]. By integrating survey with ERP techniques, it offers a more comprehensive framework for understanding how consumers interpret origin cues in digital marketing contexts. The study analyzes the following three ERP components: N200, associated with cognitive conflict; N400, related to semantic incongruity processing; and LPP, linked to emotional arousal. These components empirically uncover how consumers process origin cues at the neurocognitive level. These findings provide neuroscientific evidence for the role of origin information in shaping consumption-related cognition and emotion, thereby enhancing the explanatory power of origin effect theory in digital purchasing environments.

From a practical perspective, the findings offer practical insights for the inland seafood industry. Compared to coastal products, inland seafood is more likely to elicit cognitive conflict, semantic incongruity, and lower emotional arousal—factors that may undermine consumer confidence. In this context, e-commerce platforms should serve as key intermediaries for information dissemination and trust building, playing a vital role in reshaping the public perception of inland origins and mitigating psychological resistance.

To address these challenges, firms and platforms should consider the following strategies. First, origin cues should be reframed. Explicit geographic references, such as “inland seafood”, may activate consumer biases and should be replaced with positively framed expressions, such as “eco-friendly aquaculture”, “high-standard controlled environments”, or “green traceability”. Second, third-party credibility signals—such as ecological labels, sustainability certifications, and safety standards—should be prominently displayed to reduce geographic prejudice and enhance trust. Third, supply chain transparency should be improved by incorporating digital traceability tools and strengthening cold-chain logistics systems, thereby alleviating concerns regarding freshness and delivery reliability. Finally, the substitutive value of inland seafood should be emphasized. By emphasizing provenance and sustainability-oriented attributes, firms can reposition inland seafood as a trustworthy and differentiated alternative to coastal options. Such positioning may help reduce psychological dissonance and enhance consumers’ willingness to purchase. These strategies are particularly crucial in online marketplaces, where consumers often reply on heuristic cues—such as origin labels and ecological claims—to make rapid purchase decision.

5.5. Limitations and Future Research

While this study offers valuable insights, certain limitations should be acknowledged. First, there are certain constraints related to sample selection. While the questionnaire survey included a demographically diverse sample, the ERP experiment primarily involved university students. This demographic may exhibit higher levels of digital literacy and greater reliance on heuristic processing in online purchasing and information evaluation, which may not be representative of the broader consumer population. As a result, the observed neural and psychological patterns may have limited generalizability. Second, the ERP experiment was conducted under laboratory conditions using visual stimuli, which may not fully replicate real-world purchasing scenarios and could affect the ecological validity and generalizability of the data. Therefore, future research could address these limitations by recruiting participants from more varied age groups, geographic regions, and occupational backgrounds, while also adopting experimental designs that better reflect actual consumption contexts, such as dynamic scenario simulations or interactive tasks, to enhance ecological validity and improve the external validity and representativeness of ERP-based findings.

Looking ahead, future studies could investigate practical strategies to enhance consumer acceptance of inland seafood in digital retail settings. Potential avenues include examining the effects of optimized cold-chain logistics, certification schemes, and traceability systems on consumer trust, particularly in situations when physical inspection is not feasible. ERP techniques may also be used to examine consumer neural responses to targeted marketing messages, such as claims highlighting “nuclear contamination-free” or “regionally distinctive high-quality” attributes, to assess their efficacy in reducing cognitive dissonance and increasing purchase intention.

Moreover, cross-regional or cross-cultural comparisons could offer deeper insights into how consumer preferences for seafood origin vary across different market contexts. The integration of big data analytics may also uncover long-term behavioral trends and underlying psychological drivers, offering a more dynamic and scalable perspective on origin-based consumption. Such efforts would not only advance the theoretical understanding of origin effect but also provide actionable strategies for more effective marketing in the inland seafood sector.

6. Conclusions

This study employed a mixed-methods approach, integrating questionnaire-based surveys with event-related potential (ERP) experiments to explore consumer responses to inland versus coastal seafood in the context of e-commerce, as well as the underlying psychological and neural mechanisms driving these preferences. The results showed a consistent trend; consumers exhibited significantly stronger purchase intentions for coastal seafood compared to inland alternatives. This pattern was observed across both self-reported data and behavioral measures. ERP analyses further indicated that coastal seafood elicited lower N200 and N400 amplitudes, indicating reduced cognitive conflict and diminished semantic processing demands. In contrast, higher LPP amplitudes associated with coastal seafood reflected greater emotional arousal and stronger decision-making confidence. Collectively, these findings provide important insights into the neurocognitive mechanisms underlying seafood-related decision making and underscore the disparity in consumer acceptance between inland and coastal products. This research contributes empirical evidence to support future studies on consumer behavior in digital commerce environments and offers theoretical and practical implications for origin-based marketing strategies in the seafood industry.