Smeal College of Business, Penn State University

Food decision making
Transformative consumer research
(Mick 2006, p. 2)
By transformative research we mean investigations that are framed by a fundamental problem or opportunity , and that strive to respect, uphold, and improve life in relation to the myriad conditions, demands, potentialities, and effects of consumption. Though transformative consumer research has an immediate practical orientation , it does not forsake scrupulous methodology or perceptive theory. In fact, it is mostly —if not only—through meticulous description and compelling explanation that the findings can lead to constructive, actionable implications .

Food decision making
Transformative consumer research
 problems caused by unhealthy food consumption as a “pressing research topic” (Mick 2006);
 special issue on consumer welfare in the October
2008 issue of JCR;
 several TCR conferences, an edited book, and research funds through the TCR Grant Competition;

Food decision making
Recent research on food decision making
 articles on health, nutrition, food, consumption volumes, overeating, dieting, weight control, and obesity;
 in JCR alone, close to 50 articles have been published on these topics since 2000;
 attempt to identify the articles on food decision making that are among the more heavily cited ones of the 2928 articles published in JCR, JCP, JMR, JM and MkS between 2000 and 2011;

Food decision making
Citations of articles published between 2000 and 2011

Food decision making
Influential articles on food decision making (2000-2011)
Journal Citations Article
Fishbach and Dhar (2005), Goals as excuses or guides: The liberating effect of perceived goal progress on choice
Chandon and Wansink (2007), The biasing health halos of fast-food restaurant health claims:
Lower calorie estimates and higher side-dish consumption intentions
Okada (2005), Justification effects on consumer choice of hedonic and utilitarian goods
JCR
JCR
JMR
JMR
73
53
66
53 Wansink and Chandon (2006), Can "Low-Fat" nutrition labels lead to obesity?
Kahn and Wansink (2004), The influence of assortment structure on perceived variety and consumption quantities
Raghunathan, Naylor, and Hoyer (2006), The unhealthy equal tasty intuition and its effects on taste inferences, enjoyment, and choice of food products
Kozup, Creyer, and Burton (2003), Making healthful food choices: The influence of health claims and nutrition information on consumers' evaluations of packaged food products and restaurant menu items
Chandon and Wansink (2007), Is obesity caused by calorie underestimation? A psychophysical model of meal size estimation
Wansink and Van Ittersum (2003), Bottoms up! The influence of elongation on pouring and consumption volume
Ramanathan and Williams (2007), Immediate and delayed emotional consequences of indulgence: The moderating influence of personality type on mixed emotions
Scott, Nowlis, Mandel, and Morales (2008), The effects of reduced food size and package size on the consumption behavior of restrained and unrestrained eaters
McFerran, Dahl, Fitzsimons, and Morales (2010), I'll Have What She's Having: Effects of Social
Influence and Body Type on the Food Choices of Others
JCR
JM
JM
JMR
JCR
JCR
JCR
JCR
66
38
69
33
56
24
19
15

Food decision making
The point of departure is often a real-world problem from the substantive domain;
Substantive domain
Conceptual domain
Methodological domain
(based on Brinberg and McGrath, 1985)

Food decision making
Chandon and Wansink (2007)
 the “American obesity paradox”:
□ “healthier” food lower in calories and fat density has become more popular, yet
□ obesity rates continue to go up
 how can this happen?
□ consumers underestimate the calories of main dishes served by “healthy” restaurants;
□ this encourages consumers to order side dishes, drinks and deserts that contain more calories;

Food decision making
 food decision making is studied in real-world settings
(actual consumption, field studies)
□ Chandon and Wansink (2007): field study with consumers who had just finished eating at either McDonald’s or Subway
□ Raghunathan, Naylor, and Hoyer (2006): housewarming party at the home of one of the authors where participants tasted either a “healthy” or “unhealthy” mango lassi
 MacInnis and Folkes (2010):
“a focus on people in a consumer role will best focus our field’s intellectual resources and foster original knowledge about consumers”

Food decision making
 recent research on food decision making is having an impact beyond the narrow confines of academic consumer research;
 some researchers in this area have been able to bring a “fresh” perspective to entrenched fields such as nutrition by applying a marketing perspective to people’s eating behavior;
 the findings are intuitive and have clear policy implications;

Food decision making
Challenges for food decision making
 lots of creative ideas, but no conceptual integration
 recent examples:
□ activation of overweight stereotypes on eating of indulgent foods;
□ magical thinking by dieters;
□ the effect of future-oriented positive emotions
(hopefulness) vs. present-oriented positive emotions (pride, happiness) on unhealthy food consumption;
□ the effect of incidental pride on indulgence;

Food decision making
Challenges for food decision making
(cont’d)

□ the effect of expressing the energy content of snacks in kilojoules vs. kilocalories on the choice of healthy snacks;
□ the effect of naming an identical food pasta vs. salad on dieters’ vs. nondieters’ consumption;
□ the effect of credit cards on unhealthy food purchases;
□ the effect of powerlessness on the choice of larger food options;

Food decision making
Challenges for food decision making
(cont’d)
Bublitz, Peracchio, and Block (2010):

Food decision making
Challenges for food decision making
(cont’d)
Chandon and Wansink (2010):

Food decision making
Challenges for food decision making
(cont’d)
 Mechanisms:
□ Taste inferences
□ Perceived healthfulness
□ Perception of food as dietary forbidden or dietary allowed
□ Serving size inferences
□ Anticipated consumption pleasure and guilt, or other food-related emotions
□
□
Calorie over- or underestimation
Closeness to one’s ideal weight
□ Engagement of the hot or cool system

Food decision making
Challenges for food decision making
(cont’d)
 Moderator variables:
□ Hedonic vs. utilitarian foods
□ Overweight vs. normal weight consumers
□ Restrained vs. unrestrained eaters
□ Dieters vs. nondieters
□ Self-control
□ Systematic vs. heuristic processing and NFC
□ Cognitive load
□ Motivation for accuracy
□ Gender

Food decision making
The need for conceptual work
 Alba’s (2012) essay “In defense of bumbling”:
Contributions can be made in the absence of a complex conceptual scheme, process evidence, and one-tailed hypotheses, albeit at the personal cost of being labeled a
“bumbler.”
 consumer researchers as bumblers who position their research as theory testing post hoc;
 Yadav’s (2010) essay on the decline of conceptual articles: during the most recent period studied (2003-2007), JCR had the lowest rate of conceptual articles (under 3 percent)
 the lack of integrative theory building seems to be an unhealthy state of affairs for research on healthy eating;