Abstract
To tackle obesity, upgrading the image of healthy food is increasingly relevant. Rather than focusing on long-term benefits, an effective way to promote healthy food consumption through visual advertising is to increase its pleasure perception. We investigate whether implied motion, a popular trend in food pictures, affects food perceptions through anticipated consumption pleasure. Prior research shows that motion affects food perceptions, but these studies focused on limited food categories, using experiments with a single food stimulus, and mainly showing unhealthy food effects. Therefore, we aim to (1) replicate prior findings on the effects of food in motion on appeal, tastiness, healthiness, and freshness perceptions; (2) examine whether these effects differ for healthy and unhealthy food; and (3) investigate whether anticipated pleasure of consumption drives the effects of implied motion on food perceptions. Three between-subjects experiments (N = 626) reveal no evidence for the effectiveness of motion (vs. no motion) across a large variety of food products. We further show no differential effects for healthy versus unhealthy foods. Moreover, implied motion does not increase appeal or taste perceptions through anticipated pleasure. Considering the current replication crisis, these findings provide more nuanced insights into the effectiveness of motion in visual food advertising.
Highlights
Visual food displays are omnipresent in our daily online and offline consumption environment
Considering the current replication crisis, these findings provide more nuanced insights into how implied motion affects food perceptions
We find no differences between healthy and unhealthy food in motion on food perceptions, prior studies in food advertising suggest that visual cues can affect responses to healthy and unhealthy food differently
Summary
Visual food displays are omnipresent in our daily online and offline consumption environment. We encounter hamburgers on billboards while driving on the road, we scroll through pictures of salads and smoothies on Instagram, we see a pizza takeaway advertisement in a magazine or a food delivery application, we spot meal pictures on menus or the walls in a fast-food restaurant, and we select groceries through food photographs in an online grocery store. Because of this explosion of food-related visual content across traditional, digital, and social media, young generations and adults are continuously exposed to advertising containing food pictures [1,2,3]. Increased consumption of food high on energy but low on nutrients is one of the reasons that lay at the basis of the obesity pandemic [4,5]
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