How Images of Other Consumers Influence Subsequent Taste Perceptions

Images of food are seemingly everywhere, and yet the influence that such images have on important consumer outcomes is not well understood. The authors propose that the effect that image exposure has on taste perceptions largely depends on the interaction between the type of food (healthy vs. unhealthy) and whether the image shows the food alone (food image) or the food being consumed by a person (consummatory image). Specifically, the authors show that exposure to consummatory images of unhealthy (vs. healthy) foods increases taste perceptions relative to food images. To explain this effect, the authors argue that seeing an image of someone else indulging in an unhealthy food serves as social proof of the appropriateness and acceptability of indulgent consumption. As such, images of consumers eating act as a justification agent for real consumers, thereby reducing the conflict associated with the subsequent indulgent consumption experience and, in effect, increasing taste perceptions. The authors test this effect across five studies and eliminate rival explanations pertaining to emotional contagion, goal contagion, and source attractiveness.