Intuitive Advertisers: Emotionality in Communication About Unhealthy Food

Objective: This research tests whether people use more emotion-based language when communicating with one another about unhealthy foods than healthy foods. This matters because emotion-based language is more persuasive. Method: In three observational studies, we analyzed the emotionality in 1,000 online recipe descriptions, 4,403 food reviews, and 1,184 celebrity social media posts. In two experiments (N = 398), we analyzed the emotionality when people are prompted to persuade someone to consume an unhealthy food compared with a healthy food. In one experiment (N = 192), we tested persuasiveness as a function of emotionality. Results: Speakers use more emotionality when communicating about less healthy foods. People's tendency to focus more on long-term benefits when communicating about healthy (vs. unhealthy) foods mediated the effect of food type on emotionality. Emotionality, in turn, increases persuasiveness for healthy foods. Conclusions: People use emotionality in communicating about unhealthy (vs. healthy) foods.