Can priming a healthy eating goal cause depleted consumers to prefer healthier snacks?

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to examine whether priming words related to a healthy eating goal can facilitate self-control among depleted people.

Design/methodology/approach

A between-subject experimental design was employed, and participants were randomly assigned to conditions.

Findings

Consistent with prior research, this research finds that depletion hurts self-control, and that priming words related to a healthy eating goal facilitates it. What is novel is that if people engage in an initial task that requires self-control (that is, if people are depleted), priming health-related words has no positive influence on self-control.

Practical implications

Priming health-related words has no impact on preference when consumers are depleted; implying that marketers of healthy food products should place their product at the beginning of a consumer shopping experience, when resources are most available. In other words, the decision to associate a brand with health-related claims must be strategically coordinated with retail location decisions to maximize its effect on consumer choice. From a public policy perspective, there are some implications for grocery store layouts. For example, it may be argued that removing temptations near the entrance of a grocery store might allow consumers to conserve their effort, which may result in healthier choices.

Originality/value

This research finds that priming consumers with health-related words can encourage healthy eating choices, but only when consumers have not already engaged in self-control. This is a new insight to theory (specifically, the depletion model and the theory of nonconscious goal priming), and provides an important contribution to a significant and timely issue (that is, how to prevent and reduce obesity). This paper presents relevant implications and concludes with a number of worthwhile future research ideas.

Citation

Walsh, D. (2014), "Can priming a healthy eating goal cause depleted consumers to prefer healthier snacks?", Journal of Consumer Marketing, Vol. 31 No. 2, pp. 126-132. https://doi.org/10.1108/JCM-09-2013-0697