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

近年来，消费者行为研究取得了重大进展。以前未知的现象和影响已经被确定。消费者研究中特别感兴趣的一种效应是所谓的营销安慰剂效应(MPE)。这种效应是指营销活动可以在不改变产品物理特性的情况下影响产品感知的现象。特别是，例如，食品上的产品标签可能会导致MPE，从而标签产品通常会导致更积极的产品认知。因此，可以注意到，动物产品的MPE表现出特殊的差异，总体上，MPE似乎对一些消费者更有效。到目前为止，研究的调节MPE因素主要考察个体心理变量，但对于动物产品，进一步的社会心理因素可以在第一次自我报告研究中假设。越来越多的伦理和道德消费行为表明，一个人的道德化水平可能会对产品认知产生影响，并可能构成MPE的另一类社会心理变量。如前所述，到目前为止，伦理和道德价值观的影响只是在有意支付意愿的口头基础上确定的，因此无法推断对实际产品认知的影响。此外，到目前为止，在MPE研究中，社会心理变量在很大程度上仍然没有解决。理论阐述和有效性检验将代表着MPE研究的下一个合乎逻辑和目标导向的步骤。拟议的项目旨在调查动物产品可能出现的MPE的道德化程度。通过这样做，这项研究将通过社会心理学的方法扩展MPE的研究，并潜在地解释动物产品MPE的特定差异。

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.