Taste, sight, and sound: Multisensory evaluative conditioning shifts attitudes and food choices toward healthy foods

Abstract

Negative attitudes toward healthy foods and positive attitudes toward unhealthy foods significantly undermine healthier choices, and evaluative conditioning (EC) has the potential to reverse such attitudes. EC is a learning procedure in which a neutral stimulus acquires emotional value through repeated pairings with an affectively charged stimulus. This research combined multi‐channel physiological measurement instrument and virtual reality in two studies, incorporating actual food tasting into the intervention procedure, to explore whether multisensory EC is a more effective attitude change strategy than unisensory EC to nudge healthy eating. Study 1 ( N  = 48) compared the effectiveness of single‐sensory EC (visual or auditory) versus multisensory EC (using both visual and auditory stimuli) and found that multisensory EC produced a stronger health‐nudging effect. Physiological data, including heart rate and skin conductance responses, further supported this finding. To further enhance the efficacy of multisensory EC paradigms, Study 2 ( N  = 96) also explored the influence of media (2D vs. VR) and food type (healthy vs. unhealthy) on intervention outcomes. Results revealed an asymmetric effect: VR amplified the effects of multisensory EC on attitude‐related and consumption‐related outcomes for healthy foods, but not for unhealthy foods. Taken together, this research demonstrates the advantages of multisensory EC in nudging healthy eating and provides a low‐cost, easy‐to‐operate strategy with the potential to shift people's negative attitudes toward healthy foods.