Underrepresented populations in consumer research: An agenda for opening opportunities and closing challenges without hitting the PLATEAU

This paper develops an agenda for underrepresented populations in consumer research, highlighting both opportunities and challenges as well as ways to address them. Based on survey responses collected among attendees at the 16th Pangborn Symposium in 2025 together with data obtained through targeted LinkedIn posts in relevant communities ( N = 104), we present preliminary evidence that matters linked to greater generalisability are deemed important on a wide array of parameters, including those linked to pressing societal issues, practical relevance and research practices, especially in applied relative to basic research. Adapted study designs, methods and analyses emerged as a key initiative to enable more research on underrepresented populations, while editorial policies that put a stronger emphasis on generalisability and sample diversity turned out to be the least popular initiative in this context. When asked to state which specific underrepresented populations participants would prioritize from a sensory and consumer research perspective, low-income populations were, by far, the most frequently selected category. Grounded in these results, we introduce the PLATEAU acronym, which describes the strong focus on People from Literate, Affluent, Technological, Educated, Anglicised and Urban settings, characterised by Western customs, consumption norms and food culture. We end the paper with several strategies and concrete examples on how to mitigate the present PLATEAU priority and inspire more research on underrepresented populations, while acknowledging complex challenges, including those related to systemic biases embedded in artificial intelligence.