Food pleasure orientation diminishes the "healthy = less tasty" intuition

Previous research has shown a "healthy = less tasty" intuition. This intuition leads consumers to perceive a food with a healthy name as less tasty than the same food with an unhealthy name. The present study demonstrated that this effect of product name diminished or even reversed when consumers were high (vs. low) in food pleasure orientation. Specifically, consumers low in pleasure orientation evaluated a food item as less tasty when it had a healthy name (i.e., salad) than an unhealthy name (i.e., pasta), and they were more likely to choose a high -caloric dessert after the healthy-named (vs. unhealthy named) item. In contrast, consumers high in pleasure orientation considered the healthy-named food tastier, and their subsequent choice of dessert was not influenced by the healthy or unhealthy name of the main course. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.