Vice-Virtue Bundles

Peggy J. Liu (), Kelly L. Haws (), Cait Lamberton (), Troy H. Campbell () and Gavan J. Fitzsimons ()
Additional contact information
Peggy J. Liu: Fuqua School of Business, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina 27708
Kelly L. Haws: Owen Graduate School of Management, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee 37203
Cait Lamberton: Katz School of Business, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15260
Troy H. Campbell: Fuqua School of Business, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina 27708
Gavan J. Fitzsimons: Fuqua School of Business, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina 27708

Management Science, 2015, vol. 61, issue 1, 204-228

Abstract: We introduce a simple solution to help consumers manage choices between healthy and unhealthy food options: vice-virtue bundles. Vice-virtue bundles are item aggregates with varying proportions of both vice and virtue, holding overall quantity constant. Four studies compare choice and perceptions of differently composed vice-virtue bundles relative to one another and to pure vice and pure virtue options. Although multiple consumer segments can be identified, results suggest that people overall tend to prefer vice-virtue bundles with small ( 1 4 ) to medium ( 1 2 ) proportions of vice rather than large ( 3 4 ) proportions of vice. Moreover, people generally rate vice-virtue bundles with small vice proportions as healthier but similarly tasty as bundles with larger vice proportions. For most individuals, choice patterns are different from those predicted by variety-seeking accounts alone. Instead, these findings provide evidence of asymmetric effectiveness of small vice and virtue proportions at addressing taste and health goals, respectively.Data, as supplemental material, are available at http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2014.2053 . This paper was accepted by Yuval Rottenstreich, judgment and decision making.

Keywords: consumer choice; goal pursuit; bundles; vices; virtues; self-control; health; taste; balancing goals (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (11)

Downloads: (external link)
http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2014.2053 (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:inm:ormnsc:v:61:y:2015:i:1:p:204-228

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Management Science from INFORMS Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Asher ().