Balancing evolutionary impulses: Effects of mindfulness on virtue food preference

Abstract

Mindfulness is emerging as a contemplative tool that may positively influence consumers' preference for virtue food, thus supporting health and well-being. However, it remains unclear which consumer groups may benefit the most from mindfulness. Previous research has demonstrated that consumers who experienced unpredictable environments in low socioeconomic households as children exhibit the likelihood of an adaptive chronic preference for vice food. Against this backdrop, the current research explores how mindfulness can support consumers who experienced low socioeconomic environments as children and further sheds light on the psychological mechanism, reduced impulsivity, for increased virtue food choice. This effect is tested across different manipulations of mindfulness and virtue food contexts. The research also introduces the unique mindfulness intervention of object visualization for helping stabilize the present-moment for consumers. Overall, the findings show that mindfulness may be a potential solution to impulsivity and increase preference for virtue food, supporting consumers in health and well-being.

Expanding consumer mindfulness for collective sustainable well‐being: Overview of the special issue and future research directions

“…There are many aspects of consumption that need to be examined from a mindful perspective: acquisition, possession, consumption, maintenance, and disposal. Ermann and Septianto (2023) provide evidence that mindfulness can shift deeply ingrained consumption habits to healthier alternatives. Mortlock (2023) gives the example of Patagonia, which illustrates the role companies can play to promote the mindful maintenance and disposal of products.…”

“…Finally, Ermann and Septianto (2023) show that mindfulness interventions can help individuals who experienced low socioeconomic environments as children in overcoming their chronic preference for vice food by reducing impulsivity and shifting to a more thoughtful way of consuming. Consumer groups with unstable childhoods develop a short-term outlook and have been shown to prefer vice foods because they provide immediate gratification even though they contribute to long-term obesity and other negative physical consequences (Ermann & Septianto, 2023;Hill et al, 2016). Mindfulness, however, can provide the stability to overcome impulsivity and make more virtuous consumption choices that contribute to consumers' longterm well-being.…”

“…The special issue seeks to address the criticisms of secular mindfulness by broadening the scope of mindfulness to enhance consumer well-being beyond short-term solutions for individual well-being and creating a path for future research to study the transformative potential of mindfulness that benefits individuals and the ecosystems they inhabit. The special issue includes eight articles (Bahl et al, 2023;Ermann & Septianto, 2023;Mortlock, 2023;Parvatiyar & Sheth, 2023;Ryu, 2023;Sousa & Freire, 2022;Teufer & Grabner-Kräuter, 2023;Wang et al, 2023). We identify six themes along which the articles expand the scope of mindfulness.…”

“…Wang et al (2023) report that informal practices helped consumers make more mindful choices related to dietary supplements and perception of beauty and hence improve well-being. Ermann and Septianto (2023) share an uncommon mindfulness intervention that helps consumers overcome impulsivity to make healthier choices that lead to long term well-being. Ryu (2023) provides evidence that there is a gap between consumers' and academics' understanding of mindfulness, which leaves consumers vulnerable to marketers' McMindfulness and mindful washing techniques that do not fully deliver on mindfulness and the promised consumer well-being.…”

“…The authors conduct a national online survey with structural equation modeling to show that distinct combinations of mindfulness skills prove to be effective in different contexts. Ermann and Septianto (2023) argue that different focal points for mindfulness will be effective in different contexts and introduce a lesser-known mindfulness intervention-object visualization-to induce state mindfulness in consumers who experienced low socioeconomic environments as children (C-SES). Through four experiments, they show that brief mindfulness interventions can reduce impulsivity in consumers with low C-SES, leading to healthier food choices.…”