Effects of physical cleansing on subsequent unhealthy eating

Jungkeun Kim (), Jae-Eun Kim () and Jongwon Park ()
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Jungkeun Kim: Auckland University of Technology
Jae-Eun Kim: The University of Auckland
Jongwon Park: Korea University

Marketing Letters, 2018, vol. 29, issue 2, No 4, 165-176

Abstract: Abstract Over five experiments, we demonstrate that physical cleansing (e.g., handwashing) can reduce consumers’ unhealthy eating in subsequent unrelated contexts, by decreasing their choice of vice food (e.g., chocolate cake) versus virtue food (e.g., fruit salad) and their preferred amount vice food for consumption. This effect generalizes over different food stimuli and different operationalizations of physical cleansing (i.e., actual cleansing, visualized cleansing, and vicarious cleansing). Further, an analogous effect occurs for consumers’ unethical choice in a non-food domain, thus increasing the generalizability of the cleansing effect. Finally, one potential mechanism of the effect based on the metaphorical associations between physical cleanliness and moral purity and between vice food and immoral consumption is suggested.

Keywords: Physical cleansing; Vice versus virtue foods; Food consumption; Morality (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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DOI: 10.1007/s11002-018-9458-5

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