The Taste of Moral – Influence of ethical and moral values on the perception of taste and liking of products

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In recent years, consumer behavior research has made significant progress. Previously unknown phenomena and effects have been identified. One effect that has gained particular interest in consumer research is the so-called marketing placebo effect (MPE). This effect refers to the phenomenon that marketing activities can influence product perception without, however, changing the physical characteristics of the product. In particular, product labeling on food, for example, can cause MPE, whereby labeled products regularly lead to a more positive product perception. Thereby, it can be noted that MPE exhibits a particular variance for animal products and in general the MPE appears to be more effective for some consumers. Moderating MPE factors investigated so far mainly examine individual-psychological variables, but for animal products a further, social-psychological factor can be assumed based in first self-report studies. Increasingly ethical and moral consumption behaviors suggest that a person's level of moralization might have an impact on product perceptions and might constitute another category of social psychological variables for MPE. As mentioned earlier, an effect of ethical and moral values has so far only been identified on a verbalized basis in terms of intentional willingness to pay, so no consequences can be inferred about effects on actual product perceptions. Furthermore, until now, socio-psychological variables have remained largely unaddressed in MPE research. The theoretical elaboration and valid testing would represent a next logical and goal-oriented step in MPE research. The proposed project aims to investigate the degree of moralization in the context of a possible MPE of animal products. In doing so, the research would extend MPE research by socio-psychological approaches and potentially explain the specified variance for MPE of animal products.