PDF Ebook License to Lapse: The Effects of Weight Management Product Marketing on a Healthy Lifestyle
Five experiments demonstrate that the marketing of weight management drugs, but not supplements, undermines healthy lifestyle behaviors. Results suggest that drug marketing can affect behavior in both a mindful way, by undermining healthy behavioral intentions, or in a relatively mindless way, by increasing actual unhealthy consumption after mere exposure. Furthermore, two field studies suggest that erroneous consumer beliefs about drugs and supplements underlie this boomerang effect on consumer health, and only very high levels of expertise (e.g., medical training) are sufficient to eliminate it.
Health care practitioners, policy makers, researchers, and consumer groups alike have expressed concern over the recent rise in obesity rates in the United States. The National Center for Health Statistics (2002) has estimated a 3% annual compound rate of growth in the proportion of obese adults between 1991 and 2001. As of 2004, 32.9% of adults in the United States were obese, and 66.2% were obese or overweight (compared to 15% and 47% in 1980; Ogden et al.,2006).1 Increasing obesity rates are troubling in light of the associated health risks. For example, the Center for Disease Control has declared obesity a public health epidemic (Seiders & Petty, 2004), and obesity has been linked to increased risks for serious health conditions, such as hypertension, osteoarthritis, high cholesterol, diabetes, heart disease, stroke, gallbladder disease, sleep apnea, respiratory problems, and some cancers (e.g., Koplan, Liverman, & Kraak, 2005; National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, 2008; Sturm, 2002). Furthermore, it is estimated that obesity costs the U.S. health care system an additional $100 billion each year (Cleland et al., 2002), with health care costs increasing by 36% and medication costs by 77% (Fitch, Pyenson, Abbs, & Liang, 2004).
Meanwhile, even as obesity rates have risen, people have been trying harder to achieve and maintain a healthy lifestyle. The proportion of U.S. adults consuming low-calorie foods and beverages has grown at a 2.3% annual compound rate (to 60% in 2001), while the proportion of consumers attempting to eat a healthy diet has grown at a 6% annual rate (Calorie Control Council National Consumer Surveys, 2004; Food Marketing Institute, 2005). Moreover, an estimated 72 million Americans are regular dieters, shifting from one purported weight management solution to another (Marketdata Enterprises, 2007). This coincidence of increasing obesity rates and increasing interest in healthier eating and lifestyle habits has been noted by researchers and dubbed the “American obesity paradox” (Heini & Weinsier, 1997; Seiders & Petty, 2004).
This paradox is especially intriguing in light of the emergence of a multitude of products designed to assist consumers in losing and managing their weight. Presumably, such weight management solutions should mitigate the obesity trend, thereby increasing overall consumer health. However, might the marketing of such products actually be contributing to the prevalence of obesity? The current research proposes that weight management product marketing actually undermines healthy lifestyle behaviors—a boomerang effect of such marketing on a healthy lifestyle. Five experiments provide evidence of the boomerang of weight management advertising on intentions to live a healthy lifestyle as well as actual behavior. To our knowledge, no prior research has ever demonstrated a boomerang of weight management advertising on actual consumption behavior. Moreover, our research provides the first demonstration that the boomerang phenomenon can arise from mere exposure to weight management advertising, underscoring the power and potential importance of the boomerang effect. Further highlighting its robustness, our research demonstrates that nearly all consumers are potentially susceptible to the boomerang of weight management marketing, not just certain types of consumers. Finally, we contribute to the existing literature by systematically examining the erroneous consumer beliefs that underlie this phenomenon, as well as demonstrating how a corrective intervention can mitigate the boomerang of weight management marketing.
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