Can Happiness Promote Healthier Eating? Exploring the Role of Happiness Advertising Appeals in Food Purchasing

Abstract

ABSTRACT An increasing number of consumers are setting self‐control goals to make healthier and more rational dietary choices. However, although virtue foods that support these goals offer long‐term benefits, consumers often perceive them as unlikely to provide immediate hedonic experiences. As a result, they may struggle to self‐restrain and instead turn to vice foods that deliver instant gratification, thereby undermining their self‐control efforts. Drawing on happiness theory in positive psychology, this study proposes that advertising with happiness appeals—both pleasure‐based and meaning‐based—may influence these choices. Across three experiments ( N = 732), we examined how such appeals affect self‐controlled consumers' willingness to purchase virtue and vice foods. For virtue foods, both pleasure‐based and meaning‐based appeals significantly increase purchase intentions by reducing anticipated pain. For vice foods, meaning‐based appeals increase purchase intentions by alleviating anticipated guilt, whereas pleasure‐based appeals heighten anticipated guilt and consequently reduce willingness to purchase. The study contributes to the interdisciplinary literature on consumer behavior and positive psychology, particularly happiness research, and advances related work in food consumption, advertising appeals, and anticipated emotions. Our research also provides practical implications: for virtue foods, marketers can employ both pleasure‐based and meaning‐based appeals to effectively increase purchase intentions; for vice foods, meaning‐based appeals may also enhance consumer willingness to buy, but their use raises ethical concerns, as they may justify unhealthy choices and potentially harm consumer well‐being, calling for cautious application.