Folwarczny Michał, Otterbring Tobias, Sigurdsson Valdimar, K L Tan Lynn
Department of Business Administration, Reykjavik University, Iceland.
Department of Management, University of Agder, Norway & Institute of Retail Economics, Sweden.
Food Res Int. 2023 Feb;164:112339. doi: 10.1016/j.foodres.2022.112339. Epub 2022 Dec 28.
Extant research has found that the addition of vegetables to a meal induces a "health halo," thereby lowering the perceived calorie content of the entire dish. We investigated whether environmental stimuli that convey naturalness could trigger such a halo effect. Specifically, we tested whether meals accompanied by a natural, as opposed to an urban, background scenery were estimated to be lower in their calorie content and whether this effect was moderated by the perceived healthiness of the food alternatives. In a mixed (between-within-subjects) design experiment, 200 participants estimated the calorie content and rated the healthiness of 18 complex meals presented against either a natural or an urban background. Our results showed no main effect of the food rating background. However, there was a negative relationship between inferred food healthiness and the estimated calorie content of the meals. In addition, we found a significant interaction between food rating background and inferred healthiness of the evaluated food alternatives. Specifically, when participants evaluated meals against a natural background, they rated relatively unhealthy food alternatives as lower in calories than when they evaluated such alternatives against an urban background. Overall, our results highlight the moderating role of perceived food healthiness in studying the effects of environmental cues on consumers' calorie judgments.
现有研究发现，在一餐中添加蔬菜会产生“健康光环”效应，从而降低整道菜的感知卡路里含量。我们调查了传达自然感的环境刺激是否会引发这种光环效应。具体而言，我们测试了与城市背景相比，伴有自然背景的餐食是否被估计卡路里含量更低，以及这种效应是否会受到对食物选择的感知健康程度的调节。在一项混合（组间 - 组内）设计实验中，200名参与者估计了18道搭配自然或城市背景呈现的复杂餐食的卡路里含量，并对其健康程度进行评分。我们的结果显示食物评分背景没有主效应。然而，推断出的食物健康程度与餐食的估计卡路里含量之间存在负相关关系。此外，我们发现食物评分背景与所评估食物选择的推断健康程度之间存在显著交互作用。具体而言，当参与者在自然背景下评估餐食时，他们认为相对不健康的食物选择的卡路里含量比在城市背景下评估时更低。总体而言，我们的结果凸显了感知食物健康程度在研究环境线索对消费者卡路里判断影响方面的调节作用。
