title: An (un)healthy poster: When environmental cues affect consumers' food choices at vending machines.
abstract: Environmental cues can affect food decisions. There is growing evidence that environmental cues influence how much one consumes. This article demonstrates that environmental cues can similarly impact the healthiness of consumers' food choices. Two field studies examined this effect with consumers of vending machine foods who were exposed to different posters. In field study 1, consumers with a health-evoking nature poster compared to a pleasure-evoking fun fair poster or no poster in their visual sight were more likely to opt for healthy snacks. Consumers were also more likely to buy healthy snacks when primed by an activity poster than when exposed to the fun fair poster. In field study 2, this consumer pattern recurred with a poster of skinny Giacometti sculptures. Overall, the results extend the mainly laboratory-based evidence by demonstrating the health-relevant impact of environmental cues on food decisions in the field. Results are discussed in light of priming literature emphasizing the relevance of preexisting associations, mental concepts and goals.
authors.affiliation: University of Bern, Institute of Marketing and Management, Department Consumer Behavior, Engehaldenstrasse 4, 3012 Bern, Switzerland. Electronic address: Sabrina.Stoeckli@imu.unibe.ch.
authors.forename: Sabrina
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Stöckli
authors.affiliation: University of Bern, Institute of Marketing and Management, Department Consumer Behavior, Engehaldenstrasse 4, 3012 Bern, Switzerland; Bern University of Applied Sciences, School of Agricultural, Forest and Food Sciences HAFL, Food Science and Management, Länggasse 85, 3052 Zollikofen, Switzerland. Electronic address: Aline.Staempfli@imu.unibe.ch.
authors.forename: Aline E
authors.initials: AE
authors.lastname: Stämpfli
authors.affiliation: University of Bern, Institute of Marketing and Management, Department Consumer Behavior, Engehaldenstrasse 4, 3012 Bern, Switzerland. Electronic address: Claude.Messner@imu.unibe.ch.
authors.forename: Claude
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Messner
authors.affiliation: Bern University of Applied Sciences, School of Agricultural, Forest and Food Sciences HAFL, Food Science and Management, Länggasse 85, 3052 Zollikofen, Switzerland. Electronic address: thomas.brunner@bfh.ch.
authors.forename: Thomas A
authors.initials: TA
authors.lastname: Brunner
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D002755:Choice Behavior; D003463:Cues; D004777:Environment; D005260:Female; D005509:Food Dispensers, Automatic; D005515:Food Labeling; D005518:Food Preferences / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010865:Pilot Projects; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D062410:Snacks; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Environmental cue; Food choice; Healthy nutrition; Mental concept; Priming