有魔力的数字——奇数表达的产品信息对消费者健康食品偏好的提升作用

Magic numbers: Expressing product information in odd numbers increases consumers’ preference for healthy food

基于信息处理流畅性理论,本研究提出用奇数(vs.偶数)表达健康食品的产品信息能够提升消费者对该食品的偏好这一假设,并通过5个实验进行了验证。具体来说,实验1分别从数字奇偶性和健康食品两个视角,建立了奇数和健康食品的相关关系,即消费者倾向于用奇数(vs.偶数)来表达健康食品的产品信息(实验1a),认为用奇数(vs.偶数)表达产品信息的食品更加健康(实验1b)。实验2和实验3采用不同实验刺激物验证了用奇数(vs.偶数)表达产品信息能够显著提升消费者对健康食品的偏好。实验4进一步指出,奇数对消费者食品偏好的提升作用仅限于健康食品(vs.普通食品)。此外,本研究排除了数字大小、消费者思考方式以及个体对奇偶数的不同偏好等潜在变量的影响。研究结果对健康食品消费领域具有重要的理论价值和实践贡献。

According to the processing fluency theories, the current research proposes that expressing product information in odd (vs. even) numbers can improve consumers’ preference for healthy food and conducts five experiments to demonstrate this proposition. Specifically, we first establish the correlation between odd numbers and healthy food in experiment 1. Findings show that consumers tend to express product information in odd numbers when describing healthy (vs. ordinary) food (experiment 1a), and they perceive the food healthier when its product information is represented in odd (vs. even) numbers (experiment 1b). We then employ different experiment stimuli to empirically test the causal relationship between parity and preference for healthy food (experiment 2 and 3) and demonstrate further that such an odd-number-facilitation effect only exists in healthy (vs. ordinary) food domain (experiment 4). In addition, we rule out the potential effects of magnitude of numbers, consumers’ thinking style, and individual preferences for odd (vs. even) numbers. Finally, theoretical and practical implications are discussed.