Outsourcing Responsibility for Indulgent Food Consumption to Prevent Negative Affect

Abstract

To many consumers, indulging in unhealthy treats is a "vice" and can cause unpleasant feelings, such as guilt. Nonetheless, consumers do not want to give up indulgences altogether and find ways to allow themselves guilt-free gratification. We propose a novel, calculated tactic that consumers use to avoid unpleasant feelings often associated with unhealthy eating. Four studies demonstrate that consumers proactively and strategically confer responsibility for indulgences to other people to prevent looming negative feelings about consuming the same item. In laboratory and field experiments, for unhealthy (compared to healthy) foods consumers exhibit a preference for being served a chosen food instead of serving themselves. Moderation and mediation show that this preference is driven by anticipated negative self-conscious affect, which gives rise to a motivation to avoid responsibility. Across our studies, people seek to alter the social context surrounding indulgent food consumption in this way, despite making their own food choices.

Guilt of the Meat‐Eating Consumer: When Animal Anthropomorphism Leads to Healthy Meat Dish Choices

“…This contention is consistent with prior findings that utilitarian benefits (i.e., health benefits), offered in the form of practical necessity, can justify a morally questionable consumption more easily than hedonic benefits (i.e., taste) (Khan & Dhar, 2006;Kivetz & Simonson, 2002;Okada, 2005). In essence, when consumers need to defend their meat consumption, health benefits can provide a strong justification (Chandon & Wansink, 2007;Hagen et al, 2019;Mishra & Mishra, 2011). One's inclination toward health benefits might lead to a sacrifice of the hedonic pleasure derived from taste due to a prevalent lay belief that healthy food is not tasty (Raghunathan et al, 2006).…”

Content Hungry: How the Nutrition of Food Media Influences Social Media Engagement

“…To this day, finding and eating calorie‐dense foods typically makes people feel good (Drewnowski, 1997; Moss, 2013), releasing dopamine and stimulating pleasure centers of the brain (Volkow, Wang, & Baler, 2011). Indeed, the activation of food‐related schemas can alter emotional states, physiological responses, and desires (Collins & Stafford, 2015; Evers, Dingemans, Junghans, & Boevé, 2018; Hagen, Krishna, & McFerran, 2017, 2019; Hingston & Noseworthy, 2018, 2020; McFerran, Dahl, Fitzsimons, & Morales, 2010a, 2010b). For example, picturing oneself eating a steak, which is calorie‐dense, can increase salivation and the desire to consume (Dadds, Bovbjerg, Redd, & Cutmore, 1997).…”

Impacts of crisis emotions on negative word-of-mouth and behavioural intention: evidence from a milk crisis

“…Guilt involves a sense of regret and recovery actions like confessions, apologies or efforts to undo the harm, thereby leading to a negative assessment towards specific behaviours (Tangney et al, 1996). For example, indulgence food consumption might induce unpleasant feeling such as guilt that when consumers have a goal of healthy food consumption but end up indulging, they might experience aversive feelings such as guilt (Hagen et al, 2019). Storytelling in ads for charitable organisations is often intent on evoking guilt to enhance future donation intentions (Merchant et al, 2010).…”