Taste perceptions mediate the effect of a health goal on food choice

Although considerable research has been done on the role of a health goal in food choices, little effort is devoted to the contexts intervening between the health goal and choices and its relationship with taste and price in the congruent non-conflicting versus the incongruent conflicting choice context. The present research experimentally examined through an online study, with 1303 participants, the process through which the health goal affects food choices taking into account both the congruent non-conflicting and the incongruent conflicting choice contexts. Furthermore, the study examined whether the impact of the health goal on these choices would be mediated by taste perceptions evoked by the products' imagery. Results show that when the health goal is activated in a non-conflicting (vs. conflicting) choice context, the consumers are more likely to choose more expensive (vs. cheaper) products. The consumers' expected product taste further mediate this effect of the health goal on the product choice, where a non-conflicting (vs. conflicting) choice-set additionally intensifies the consumers' taste perceptions, producing a congruent healthy - tasty relationship. These findings suggest that the health goals do not always invoke incongruence with taste, at least in the context of products perceived as naturally healthy. For a broader market, this effect could actually be a blessing in disguise, where health-related communication efforts effectively inducing congruence with taste, would be more capable of catering the consumers' food choices.

Automated summary

This study examined how health goals influence food choices, finding that in a non-conflicting choice context, consumers are more likely to choose more expensive products. The expected taste of the products further mediates the effect of the health goal on product choice, intensifying taste perceptions in a non-conflicting choice context.