Samples may guide consumer choice towards consistent products, resulting in a shopping basket that has a greater proportion of products similar to the sample. Specifically, healthy (unhealthy) samples in a grocery setting may lead to healthier (less healthy) shopping baskets. We demonstrate this...

When does a gain-framed health message work better than a loss-based one, such as a fear appeal? Although a basic summary of the literature would be inconsistent and inconclusive, a deeper focus on the individual or person-specific characteristics of the audience targeted in the studies shows a...

Why is America a land of low-calorie food claims yet high-calorie food intake? Four studies show that people are more likely to underestimate the caloric content of main dishes and to choose higher-calorie side dishes, drinks, or desserts when fast-food restaurants claim to be healthy (e.g.,...

People often behave in ways that are clearly detrimental to their health. We review representative research on unhealthy behaviors within a parsimonious framework, the Hot-Cold Decision Triangle. Through this framework, we describe how when people embrace colder state reasoning — instead of...