When dessert comes close: The effects of anticipating indulgent consumption and dietary restraint on healthy food preference at restaurants

Abstract

Highlights This study examines how anticipating indulgence affects healthy food preference. The effect of anticipating indulgence was moderated by consumers’ dietary restraint. Anticipating indulgence reduced restrained eaters’ healthy food preference. Anticipating indulgence tended to have an opposite effect among unrestrained eaters.

The effect of ad appeals and message framing on consumer responses to plant-based menu items

“…Consistent with previous research (Peer, Vosgerau, Acquisti, 2014), participants had to be 18 years or older, reside in the US, and have an approval rate of at least 95%. We also employed attention check questions to ensure valid responses Oh, 2020). Forty-one participants were removed due to attention check failures, leaving a sample size of 156.…”

“…Health attributes are less important in such consumption contexts because health goals are not salient (Oh, 2020;Ramanathan & Williams, 2007). Moreover, there is an ongoing debate on whether plant-based burgers are healthier than traditional beef burgers (CNET, 2019;NBC News, 2019).…”

“…While Palomo-Vélez et al (2018) suggest that framing meat eating as a health issue can reduce future intention to eat meat, Vainio et al (2018) reveal that reading an essay highlighting health consequence of meat fails to change people's food habits. Since health considerations tend to be less salient in indulgent food consumption contexts (Oh, 2020;Ramanathan & Williams, 2007), health messages may be not very effective in eliciting feelings of ambivalence. Taken together, we put forth the following hypotheses: H3.…”

“…Currently plant-based menu items tend to be indulgent, thus reducing the effectiveness of health appeals as health goals are not salient in such consumption contexts (Oh, 2020;Ramanathan & Williams, 2007). Future research should investigate the effectiveness of health and social appeals for different food types (e.g., vice and virtue).…”

Cross-Category Add-On Bundling: Impact of the Consumption Nature of Bundled Products on Discount Framing Effectiveness

“…Prior research suggests that hedonic consumption is more difficult to justify than utilitarian consumption (Khan and Dhar 2010; Kivetz and Zheng 2017; Okada 2005; Uhrich, Schumann and von Wangenheim 2013). Hedonic consumption represents relatively more guilt-inducing consumption than utilitarian consumption, and is more closely related to discretionary, rather than necessary, choice (Choi, Madhavaram, and Park 2020; Choi et al 2014; Hanks and Mattila 2014; Oh 2020). Furthermore, the outcome of hedonic consumption is related to a personal and experiential outcome, as opposed to the task and functional outcomes of utilitarian consumption, making it more difficult to quantify (Ettinger et al 2021; Okada 2005).…”