How health motivation moderates the effect of vividness on consumption expectations of indulgent food

Abstract

The current research examines how the vividness of food depictions affects consumers' consumption expectations of indulgent food items. Through three studies, we found that the level of motivation to be healthy plays a crucial role in determining how vividness impacts their consumption expectations of indulgent food items. Specifically, when consumers are less motivated to be healthy, vividness increases their consumption expectations due to increased attention-driven involvement with the food information. On the other hand, when consumers are motivated to be healthy, vividness is assumed to increase goal conflict, leading to reduced consumption expectations. Importantly, our research also found that the joint effect of vividness and health motivations on consumption expectations is attenuated when the indulgent food items contain healthy ingredients.