Resisting the Allure of Variety: How Pursuing Self-Regulatory Goals Impacts Variety Seeking in Vice Consumption

Abstract

This research explores how variety seeking tendencies differ when consumers are in pursuit of a self-regulatory goal. Specifically, consumers who have (versus do not have) a self-regulatory goal, such as weight-loss goal, will incorporate less variety in choice sets of vice categories (or categories that are inconsistent with the self-regulatory goal) both when variety entails different food categories (studies 1, 2A and 2B), and different flavors of the same food category (study 3). Consumers’ motivation to exert self-control when they are in pursuit of a goal mediates the effect (studies 3 and 4) as a varied choice-set of vice items is considered a more tempting option than a non-varied set of such items. The effect is mitigated when the food category is perceived as “virtue”, because when choosing among “virtues” there is no need to exercise self-control (study 5).

Keywords: self-regulatory goals, self-control, variety seeking, vice consumption

JEL Classification: M31