The Unhealthy = Tasty Intuition and Its Effects on Taste Inferences, Enjoyment, and Choice of Food Products
Abstract
Across four experiments, the authors find that when information pertaining to the assessment of the healthiness of food items is provided, the less healthy the item is portrayed to be, (1) the better is its inferred taste, (2) the more it is enjoyed during actual consumption, and (3) the greater is the preference for it in choice tasks when a hedonic goal is more (versus less) salient. The authors obtain these effects both among consumers who report that they believe that healthiness and tastiness are negatively correlated and, to a lesser degree, among those who do not report such a belief. The authors also provide evidence that the association between the concepts of “unhealthy” and “tasty” operates at an implicit level. The authors discuss possibilities for controlling the effect of the unhealthy = tasty intuition (and its potential for causing negative health consequences), including controlling the volume of unhealthy but tasty food eaten, changing unhealthy foods to make them less unhealthy but still tasty, and providing consumers with better information about what constitutes “healthy.”
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Many people believe that healthy foods are not tasty, enjoyable, or satisfying.
“many people believe that healthy foods are not tasty, enjoyable, or satisfying (Finkelstein & Fishbach, 2010; Raghunathan, Naylor, & Hoyer, 2006; Suher, Raghunathan, & Hoyer, 2016).”
From Increasing Vegetable Intake by Emphasizing Tasty and Enjoyable Attributes: A Randomized Controlled Multisite Intervention for Taste-Focused Labeling (2019) · cites this paper as Raghunathan, Naylor, & Hoyer, 2006
The experience of a food depends on how it is described.
“The exact same foods can be experienced as more or less tasty (Maimaran & Fishbach, 2014; Raghunathan et al., 2006), filling (Finkelstein & Fishbach, 2010; Suher et al., 2016), physiologically satiating (Crum, Corbin, Brownell, & Salovey, 2011), and neurologically rewarding (Veldhuizen, Nachtigal, Flammer, de Araujo, & Small, 2013), depending on how they are described.”
From Increasing Vegetable Intake by Emphasizing Tasty and Enjoyable Attributes: A Randomized Controlled Multisite Intervention for Taste-Focused Labeling (2019) · cites this paper as Raghunathan et al., 2006
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- Authors
- Raghunathan, R., Naylor, R. W., & Hoyer, W. D.
- Affiliations
- The University of Texas at Austin (US)
- Moore School of Business, University of South Carolina
- Corresponding author
- Raghunathan, Rajagopal
- Hoyer, Wayne D.
- Venue
- Journal of Marketing
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 2006-10
- Volume
- 70
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 170-184
- ISSN
- 0022-2429 (ISSN-L)
- 1547-7185
- OpenAlex
- W1964363948
- Cited by
- 1,289
- References
- 2
- Citations by year
- 2026: 89 · 2025: 92 · 2024: 75 · 2023: 89 · 2022: 106 · 2021: 104 · 2020: 95 · 2019: 91 · 2018: 82 · 2017: 89 · 2016: 70 · 2015: 80 · 2014: 57 · 2013: 46 · 2012: 50
- FWCI
- 8.36
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Journal of Marketing (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Consumer Attitudes and Food Labeling
- Health Sciences › Nursing › Nutrition and Dietetics › Nutrition, Health and Food Behavior
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Food Science › Sensory Analysis and Statistical Methods
- Keywords
- food enjoyment, food choice, implicit associations, health information, consumer beliefs
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