About AMA

Executive Summary
Several unrelated cues in the environment can influence consumer product choices. For example, prior research has shown that the type of music played in a store, hunger levels, smells, the presence of others, and so on, can influence a person’s decisions. In this article, the authors find that that the type of food a person consumes can influence consumers’ product choices. Specifically, they find that consumption of food that enhances the levels of the neurotransmitter serotonin can make people less impulsive in their subsequent purchase decisions. Serotonin can be synthesized from the amino acid tryptophan, which can be found in various food sources, such as turkey, tofu, and milk. Serotonin is reported to reduce impulsive responding, which is defined as experiencing a sudden and unplanned urge that is immediately gratifying or acting on an impulse without careful deliberation of the negative or long-term consequences. This article finds that the consumption of food that enhances serotonin levels makes people less likely to purchase products available at deep discounts and more likely to prefer cautious financing options.

Using the context of Thanksgiving and the subsequent Black Friday sales, the authors study the impulsive product choices of people who consumed a traditional Thanksgiving dinner and those who did not consume such a meal. The typical Thanksgiving meal, with large quantities of turkey and other carbohydrates, has the potential to increase the levels of serotonin in the brain. The findings suggest that people who consumed a traditional Thanksgiving dinner were less impulsive in their product choices and thus were less likely to buy a product available at deep discounts during Black Friday sales. A lab study replicated these findings. Participants were given either a tryptophan-rich or a non-tryptophan-rich beverage. Then, they were given a choice between buying a hedonic product immediately using their credit card or using layaway financing. Layaway is a way to purchase a product by paying in installments and being able to take the product home only when all the installments are paid. Unlike a credit card, it gives people the opportunity to buy only those products that they can actually afford and avoid excessive credit card debt. Participants who consumed a tryptophan-rich beverage were more likely to prefer the less impulsive layaway financing option than participants who did not consume such a beverage.

Biography
Arul Mishra is assistant professor of marketing and David Eccles Emerging Scholar in the Eccles School of Business, University of Utah. Arul received a PhD in Marketing from the University of Iowa in 2007. Her research interests include studying consumer decision making processes specifically related to consumption and justification influences, contagion theory, processing fluency, and nonconscious influences. She has published in the Journal of Consumer Research, Marketing Science, and Psychological Science.

Himanshu Mishra is the David Eccles Emerging Scholar and assistant professor of marketing in the David Eccles School of Business, University of Utah. His research is focused on understanding the affective and cognitive processes in decision making, behavioral decision theory, consumption experiences and their outcomes, and the influence of sales promotion strategies. Himanshu’s articles have appeared in the Journal of Consumer Research, Marketing Science, and Psychological Science. He received his PhD in Marketing from the University of Iowa in 2006.

Member Comments (0):

To rate or comment on articles, you must be a logged in AMA member. Click here to join