The influence of timing, location and social setting on hedonic and emotional evaluations of past eating experiences

Abstract

PurposeOur hedonic and emotional evaluations of the foods we encounter in daily life are predictive of whether we will choose to consume these foods in the future. Given the context-dependent nature of these evaluations and the rise in studies set in naturalistic and ecologically valid consumption settings, it is crucial that we examine the impact of contextual variables on our current consumer emotion measurement methods.Design/methodology/approachThree important factors that influence meal-evoked emotion – meal time, location and social setting – were explored via online survey of 866 English-speaking adults from all over the world. Respondents were asked to recall three meals they had consumed in the past week and report on their subjective liking and emotional associations. Subjective liking was measured with a labelled affective magnitude scale and emotion was measured using EsSense25.FindingsDinner meals, meals eaten at the home of a family member or friend, and meals eaten with one's spouse or partner were rated highest in subjective liking. Meals eaten at work or alone were associated with the lowest intensities of positive emotion.Originality/valueThe majority of investigations into meal context and emotion have measured consumers' emotional associations in the moment and in the laboratory. The present study characterises the influence of contextual variables on the emotional associations of past eating experiences in naturalistic settings.

Effects of Game Situation-Dependent Emotions on Sport Spectators’ Food Craving

“…As discussed in Introduction, such inconsistencies likely stem from the tendency in most emotional eating studies to predominantly focus on negative emotions, an approach based on the widespread assumption that, given individuals’ inherent desire to avoid harm, negative emotions automatically induce eating ( Macht, 1999 ). Recent studies (e.g., Altheimer and Urry, 2019 ; Nath et al, 2020 ), however, have suggested that individuals’ emotional eating might be a behavioral tendency learned from their cumulative socialization process rather than being an inherent characteristic. These studies have further gone on to suggest that some positive emotions could ironically induce food craving and emotional eating behavior (e.g., hedonic and happy eating phenomena; Bongers et al, 2013 ; Salerno et al, 2014 ).…”

“…Second, research suggests that individuals who have previous associations between emotions and eating are likely to show chronic tendencies of emotional eating ( Altheimer and Urry, 2019 ), resulting in health risks such as severe obesity, diabetes, and heart disease ( Nath et al, 2020 ). Media managers and legislators should then pay a closer attention to emotionally positioned advertising campaigns given that among the four types of discrete emotions examined, anger (experienced through close and decisive losses) has the greatest potential to evoke emotional eating.…”

“…For example, recent evidence indicates that food craving 2 can be understood as a learned behavior shaped through cumulative emotional coping experiences ( Altheimer and Urry, 2019 ). That is, individuals often crave food intake under situations that evoke particular emotions because they have associated emotions with eating in the past as a means to address situation-dependent emotional responses ( Nath et al, 2020 ; Low et al, 2021 ). To illustrate, sport fans often react emotionally to the performance of athletes/teams they support while also frequently conducting an emotional assessment of events as they watch a game ( Cornil and Chandon, 2013 ).…”