Journal article
How does incidental curiosity affect consumers' unhealthy eating?
The Journal of consumer marketing, v 36(6), pp 784-793
09 Sep 2019
Featured in Collection : UN Sustainable Development Goals @ Drexel
Abstract
Purpose This paper aims to examine how, why and when incidental curiosity might have an influence on consumers' unhealthy eating behaviors in a subsequent, irrelevant context. Design/methodology/approach Three experiments were conducted. Study 1 tested the basic main effect; Study 2 further tested the proposed process; Study 3 identified an important moderator and offered additional support for the mechanism. Findings Study 1 demonstrated the basic main effect that incidental curiosity increases consumers' preference for unhealthy food. Study 2 replicated the effect in a simulated grocery-shopping task and further provided direct process evidence that a reward-approaching orientation underlies the effect of curiosity on unhealthy food choice. Finally, Study 3 identified information nature as an important moderator of the effect. That is, when people are curious about threatening information, they are likely to adopt an avoidance motivation, which prevents them from seeking any unhealthy food. Originality/value This research contributes to the curiosity literature by demonstrating that incidental curiosity could have motivational impacts in the non-information domain, such as food choice. It also adds to the food decision literature by documenting incidental curiosity as an important situational factor of consumers' food decisions.
Metrics
Details
- Title
- How does incidental curiosity affect consumers' unhealthy eating?
- Creators
- Chen Wang - Drexel Univ, Dept Mkt, Bennett S LeBow Coll Business, Philadelphia, PA 19104 USA
- Publication Details
- The Journal of consumer marketing, v 36(6), pp 784-793
- Publisher
- Emerald Group Publishing
- Number of pages
- 10
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Language
- English
- Academic Unit
- Marketing
- Web of Science ID
- WOS:000486001900008
- Scopus ID
- 2-s2.0-85068135615
- Other Identifier
- 991019168860204721
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- Web of Science research areas
- Business