March 10, 2005
Consumers Feel Guilty Over the Good, Says Raghunathan
By Laura Holtz
Imagine two small cookies. They look exactly the same, except you know one is healthier than the other. Which one do you think will taste better?
If you are like most people, according to Raj Raghunathan, a marketing professor at the McCombs School of Business, you will expect the less healthy option to taste better. People often expect that pleasurable things are bad for you in some way. Raghunathan is studying this phenomenon.
On March 8, he spoke to more than 100 students about his research. In Raghunathan’s experiment, he tested participants’ taste impressions of crackers, Mango Lassi (a yogurt-based mango milkshake), and enchiladas. Each time, participants were told different nutritional information about the food item, then were asked to rate the item based on taste. He found that people rated “less healthy” items as tastier.
Such consumer decision-making, Raghunathan explained, can be traced to several different ideas. First, clichés such as “There is no such thing as a free lunch” and “If it looks too good to be true, then it probably is” have created an assumption among consumers that life is a zero sum game.
The Protestant work ethic, prevalent throughout America, also comes into play. Ideas that comfort and luxury do not come easily and that one must put needs over wants have led many consumers to believe that things they consider “serious” or “worthy” cannot also be “fun,” “trivial” or “frivolous.”
Just think of the dating game. “Why do people want to play hard-to-get?” Raghunathan asked. “People think that if they work harder, the reward will be better in the end.” A literary example comes from The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. Tom is painting the fence because he has been punished, but as soon as he makes it look like a desirable thing to do, others want to join in.
Even assumptions about car safety can be traced to what Raghunathan called the “Fun = Not Good” intuition. “Which car looks safer?” asked Raghunathan, brandishing photos. “This bright yellow, sporty Mini Cooper or this big, tan, four-door Kia?” The audience agreed the Kia looked safer, but tests reveal that the Mini is safer.
“There is a certain guilt associated with good,” and it has an impact on consumer decision-making, Raghunathan concluded.
Raghunathan was the second of five faculty members who will speak this semester as part of the Faculty Research Presentation Speaker Series. The series is designed to give students an opportunity to learn about the research of McCombs faculty members and see what they do outside of the classroom.
For information on specific programs at the McCombs School, consult our contacts page. For media information, contact the Communications Director by phone at 512-471-3314 or by email at CommunicationsDirector@mccombs.utexas.edu.
