Many women experience ambivalent reactions to chocolate: craving it but also wary of its impact on weight and health. Chocolate advertisements often use thin ideal models and previous research indicates that this exacerbates ambivalence. This experiment compared attitudes to, and consumption of, chocolate following exposure to images containing thin or overweight models together with written messages that were either positive or negative about eating chocolate. Participants (all female) were categorised as either low- or high-restraint. Approach, avoidance and guilt motives towards chocolate were measured and the participants had an opportunity to consume chocolate. Exposure to thin ideal models led to higher approach motives and this effect was most marked among the high restraint participants. Avoidance and guilt scores did not vary as a function of model size or message, but there were clear differences between the restraint groups, with the high restraint participants scoring substantially higher than low restraint participants on both of these measures. When the participants were provided with an opportunity to eat some chocolate, those with high restraint who had been exposed to the thin models consumed the most.
Chocolate evokes mixed reactions in many women. It is one of the most craved foodstuffs among females, much enjoyed for its sensory properties (Rozin, Levine, & Stoess, 1991). Yet it can also be a source of concern because its calorific density presents risks of unwanted weight gain and because some consumers fear possible stigmatization for self-indulgence (Macht and Dettmer, 2006, Rogers and Smit, 2000 and Rozin et al., 2003). Recent studies have confirmed that chocolate evokes ambivalent attitudes (Cartwright and Stritzke, 2008, Hormes and Rozin, 2011, Rodgers et al., 2011 and Rodríguez et al., 2005). Research with both children (Cartwright et al., 2007) and adults (Cartwright and Stritzke, 2008 and Rodgers et al., 2011) has demonstrated that attitudes to this sweet can be distinguished into approach, avoidance, and guilt components. Importantly, these conflicting orientations are experienced often simultaneously. An individual can find herself at once drawn to chocolate but also anxious to avoid it and experiencing feelings of guilt if she consumes it. For example, high chocolate cravers reported feeling more joyful and more guilty than lower cravers after eating chocolate ( Moreno-Dominguez, Rodriguez-Ruiz, Martin, & Warren, 2011).
Consumers’ ambivalence towards chocolate has implications both for those who seek to promote sales of it (e.g., advertisers) and for those who wish to provide advice about its consumption (e.g., health educators). In each context, issues arise concerning the impact of imagery and messages that might be employed in communicating with audiences: in response to any advertisement or warning, conflicting orientations could be instigated. At present, we lack information on the patterns of such reactions as a function of the nature of the communications. In this study, we examined the impact of visual imagery and verbal message contents on women’s orientation to and consumption of chocolate.
Influencing feelings about chocolate
Affective orientations towards chocolate are not stable but vary as a function of hunger, mood, food related cognitions, information about nutritional contents, and exposure to the stimulus object or images of it (Benford and Gough, 2006, Fletcher et al., 2007, Hormes and Rozin, 2011, Mooney et al., 2009, Rodríguez et al., 2005, Rolls and McCabe, 2007 and Steenhuis, 2009). Levels of approach, avoidance, and guilt orientations may each change in response to salient experiences, such as encountering an advertisement intended to promote desire for the sweet, or receiving a nutritionist’s warning that too much can be bad for you. Visual imagery is used extensively in advertisements for most products, including chocolate. Exposure to images of chocolate can certainly heighten desire for it (Fletcher et al., 2007 and Rolls and McCabe, 2007). Perhaps paradoxically, visual ads for chocolate often include also images of slender female models (Geiger & Fennell, 2003). It seems that advertisers wish to enhance the appeal of the foodstuff by associating it with the ‘thin ideal.’ The desire to be thin is highly motivating for many women throughout the lifespan (Levine and Murnen, 2009 and Tiggemann, 2002) and advertisers may aim to exploit this aspiration. In contrast, a possible strategy for health educators who wish to alert the public to the consequences of over-indulgence is to associate the product with images of overweight women. We consider below the implications of these different visual strategies for affective reactions.
A related way to provide information about a foodstuff is to describe it and its consequences. As well as visual imagery, most advertisements contain some verbal or textual message about the desirability of the product. In the case of chocolate, these messages are often about its smooth and delectable taste (Hill & Radimer, 1997). Most health communications about chocolate, in contrast, disseminate warnings about the deleterious results of excess, emphasising weight gain and associated risks, and advising lower levels of consumption (American Dietetic Association and Duyff, 2006 and Johnson et al., 1999).
