Athletic abs or big bellies:The impact of imagery, arousal levels, and health consciousness on consumers’ attitudes towards plant-based protein products

Abstract Research suggests that health-related imagery influences consumers’ product attitudes, and that both appetitive, positively framed and aversive, negatively framed imagery can be used to boost health-related responses. Arousal has been suggested as a mechanism driving such responses, but few studies in food-related consumer research have examined the link between arousal and consumers’ product attitudes. The present cross-national study, involving almost 1000 consumers (N = 959) from Denmark, Germany, Spain, and the UK, experimentally investigated whether prior exposure to healthy (vs. unhealthy) imagery influences consumers’ attitudes towards a plant-based protein product. Furtherm…