“We found that when people who are sad are exposed to pictures of indulgent food or indulgent words, their sadness highlights the negative consequences of indulging and encourages them to indulge less,” said Anthony Salerno, a doctoral candidate at the University of Miami School of Business, who conducted the research with Juliano Laran, associate professor of marketing at the School of Business and Chris Janiszewski of the University of Florida.
In a series of five experiments, the researchers studied the behaviour of participants who were exposed to advertisements with either indulgent words or images (ie pizza, chocolate cake), or neutral words or images (ie washing machines, electric cars), and then they were instructed to write about something that made them feel sad. At the end of the study, the participants were given the opportunity to eat indulgent foods like M&M’s or chocolate chip cookies.
Study results showed that when people were first exposed to pleasurable information and then made to feel sad, they:
In contrast, when people were exposed to neutral information and made to feel sad, they increased their consumption of indulgent foods.
“In the fight against obesity in the US, our research has implications for both consumers and marketers,” said Laran. “It can show people how to better understand the link between advertisements and their emotional state and how this impacts their eating behaviour.
“For marketers of products encouraging a healthy lifestyle, this work offers more data regarding primes that help or hinder one’s ability to eat healthy or not.”
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