The influence of nature in advertisements on healthy product choice

The influence of nature in advertisements

on healthy product choice

June 22, 2015

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The influence of nature in advertisements

on healthy product choice

Master Thesis, Marketing management

Author: P.C.L (Philine) Raben

Department:

Faculty of Economics and Business

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Abstract

This thesis examines the effect nature in advertising can have on the subsequent product choice consumers make. Restoration theory (Kaplan, 1995) has shown that nature has many characteristics that can cause restoration of directed attention. Directed attention is a resource for self-regulation and self-regulation is needed to choose the healthier product alternative. It is proposed that advertisements, which contain nature, can lead to a healthier subsequent product choice. Lots of research is done with mundane nature and urban environments but the effects of spectacular nature are not yet researched extensively. This research takes spectacular nature, mundane nature and urban environments into account and will compare the effects of them on product decision. The results show that type of environment can influence the subsequent product choice one makes. Restoration does not seem to mediate the relationship between environment seen and product decision and depletion does not have a significant effect on product decision in this research. Implications and areas for further research are also addressed.

Keywords: nature imagery, advertising, advertising effects, attention restoration theory, nature,

product decision, self regulation.

Preface

In order to conclude my MSc Marketing Management at the University of Groningen, a master thesis needed to be written. The topic was chosen because I found it very interesting to dive into the positive side of marketing. Ever since I’ve been little, I have been fascinated by advertising and the different ways it could influence consumers. Unfortunately advertising is often used to influence consumers to buy unhealthy products such as fast food. I thought it would be interesting to see if consumers could be influenced in such a way that it would possibly improve the consumer its health. This way marketing could not only be used to sell products but would also have a societal relevance. I want to contribute to the positive side of marketing and try to show the positive things that advertising can achieve.

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Table of contents

2.2 Nature & Advertising ... 7

2.3 Attention restoration theory ... 8

2.4 Self-control & Self-Regulation ... 10

2.5 Healthy choices ... 11

Nature relatedness ... 12

2.6 Hypotheses & Conceptual model ... 12

3. Method ... 16

3.1 Participants & Design ... 16

3.2 Materials ... 16 3.3 Procedure ... 20 4. Results ... 21 4.1 Preliminary analyses... 21 4.2 Main effects ... 22 4.3 Moderator analysis ... 26 4.4 Mood measurement ... 26 5. Discussion ... 28 5.1 Theoretical contributions ... 28 5.2 Practical implications ... 31

5.3 Limitations & Future research ... 32

5.4 Conclusion ... 33

6. References ... 34

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1. Introduction

It is 10 pm and after a long, tiring day of work you are sitting in front of the television switching from one channel to another. After watching the news, the commercial break starts. You feel like eating something but you are not sure what. After watching a couple of commercials with stunning nature you walk to the kitchen. You grab an apple instead of that tasty bag of potato chips and walk back to the television.

Can something as ordinary as a television commercial with nature images influence our food choices? Does it matter if you have to make decisions whether or not you are suffering from fatigue? Attention restoration theory (Kaplan, 1995) has shown that nature can have influence on recovery of fatigue, but can natural scenery in advertising help restore energy and lead to a healthy choice? This thesis will go into more depth about these questions and will develop a theoretical framework related to these issues. Tests will show if the literature-based expectations are correct.

Almost every category of products uses advertising. The main goal of advertising is to persuade viewers (Fennis & Stroebe, 2010), and to help increase sales (Lavidge & Steiner, 2000). Although some advertisements are developed to make customers laugh or to touch them emotionally, not every consumer reacts to advertisements in the same manner. According to Edell and Burke (1987) multiple emotions can occur during an advertisement, these can be either positive or negative or can even be both. They also state that advertisements can have different effects on the same person when watching it at a different moment. One can feel attentive for the advertisement in one moment and bored in another. The intensity of the feelings evoked by the advertisement can

vary among individuals as well (Edell & Burke, 1987).

Many different tactics are used to grasp the customer’s attention. Nowadays nature imagery appeals are frequently used (Hansen, 2002). There are lots of product categories that make use of nature in their advertising campaigns. Nature can be

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for example found in car commercials, advertisements for dairy products and even in candy advertisements (e.g. the icy mountains in gum commercials and Milka chocolate from the Alps, see figure 1 for an example).

Not every natural environment used in advertising is similar. Some include more spectacular and breathtaking nature than others. In this research the potentially different effects of spectacular nature and ordinary (mundane) nature are tested. Spectacular nature is in this case specified as nature that is not seen in everyday life by the average Dutch citizen. This could be for example a view of the snowy Alps, an enormous waterfall or the Grand Canyon. Mundane nature is nature that can be seen all around us, and that does not have any extraordinary aspects. These are for example gardens, back yards, forest/field settings and nature trails (Herzog, Chen & Primeau, 2002). Both types of nature are used in advertising. Car commercials for example make more use of spectacular nature whereas dairy products (e.g. Campina) make more use of mundane (Dutch) nature (e.g. green meadows with cows).

After exposure to so many different commercials with different appeals, consumers frequently have to make decisions on what they would like to consume. Research with children has shown that advertisements of unhealthy products strongly influenced the product choices of those children. Advertisements of unhealthy products led to an unhealthier subsequent product choice (Gorn & Goldberg, 1982). It is very hard for customers to always make the right (i.e. healthy) choice. Not only do most people like the taste of unhealthy products, it seems harder to make the right decision when you feel fatigued because the resources to regulate yourself can be low (Kouchaki & Smith’s, 2014). These resources are needed for healthy product decisions (Kouchaki & Smith’s, 2014). In 2014 over 1.9 billion adults worldwide are overweight and of this group more than 600 million were obese (WHO.int, 2015). When people are structurally making more healthy choices, general health could increase.

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Does showing fatigued customers advertisements with natural backgrounds cause the subsequent food choice to be healthier?

Kaplan’s (1995) restoration theory has proven that nature can have a big impact on restoring attentional fatigue. Attentional fatigue is the result of mental effort and makes it harder to concentrate (Cimprich, 1992). When consumers are depleted, nature can help recovering (Kaplan, 1995). Customers who suffer from fatigue have weaker self-regulation (Baumeister & Heatherton, 1996), which might make it harder to choose healthier products over unhealthy ones. The relationship between type of environment, depletion and product decision will be examined in this research. Expected is that advertisements, which contain nature, will lead to the same effect as regular images of nature and will affect the subsequent food choice. This research will take three different environments into account. Spectacular nature, mundane nature and urban environments will all be examined. Further explanations about the theoretical background of the hypotheses will be discussed in the theoretical framework.

2. Theoretical framework

In order to give an answer to the research question, the main theories on nature, attention restoration, self-control and self-regulation and healthy choices will be explained in more depth. 2.1 Nature

Defining nature is a challenging task since there is not just one right answer. Canniford and Shankar (2013) define nature as untouched wilderness, without the influence of humans, where people can escape everyday life and enjoy themselves. Soper (1995) defines nature as everything that is not human and can be differentiated from the work of humans. She does note that this definition is rather confined. A park landscaped by humans can still be considered nature. In this research, the term nature will be used in a rather wide way. Gardens, parks, waterfalls, even if landscaped by humans, will be all grouped under the title nature.

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when being in mundane nature were freedom, unity with nature and happiness. Besides she discovered that the underlying dimensions for visiting nature are diverse. People could enjoy being in nature for restoration purposes, a spiritual experience or use it as an amenity (Chiesura, 2004). It does not produce much arousal, could help better concentrating, leads to a better mood and can be psychological beneficial (Joye & Bolderdijk, 2014; Ryan, Weinstein, Bernstein, Brown, Mistretta & Gagne, 2010). Mundane nature has been found to trigger emotions like (low, moderate or high) interest, anticipation with pleasantness, elation, exhilaration, joy, peacefulness and dislike accompanied by anxiety, fear or uncertainty (Ulrich, 1983). Although this list is not exhaustive, it provides insights in emotions evoked by mundane nature.

There is not much research done to examine the actual impact of spectacular nature on people since most research makes use of mundane nature. This means that there is not one clear answer on what the influence is of this type of nature. One emotion nature can evoke is awe. According to Keltner and Haidt (2003) awe involves “being in the presence of something powerful, along with associated feelings of submission. Awe also involves a difficulty in comprehension, along with associated feelings of confusion, surprise and wonder” ( Keltner and Haidt 2003, p. 303). Awe is mostly felt when people are exposed to big natural objects such as storms, oceans and mountains (Keltner & Haidt, 2003). Keltner and Haidt (2003) also show that natural environments that surpass a person’s previous knowledge are more likely to elicit awe than environments that are familiar. It seems that awe is more strongly evoked by spectacular nature. Furthermore, Hartmann and Apaolaza-Ibáñez (2013) found that from all the different images in advertisements, the presence of clear water and lush green vegetation is liked most. Clear water can be found in spectacular nature as well as in mundane nature. In spectacular nature even in extreme (e.g. Niagara falls). The reason why water plays such an important role is because feelings of tranquility are evoked and it is very high in aesthetic value (Ulrich, 1981). Spectacular nature is also more mood lifting compared to mundane nature and urban environments (Joye & Bolderdijk, 2014).

2.2 Nature & Advertising

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the need for protection. Although this is 15 years ago, lots of advertisements that use nature the same way as Hansen (2002) provided, can be seen. Amazing imagery of nature can also be used in advertising to show the company’s involvement with the environment. This phenomenon is called green advertising (Hartmann & Apaolaza-Ibáñez, 2009).Hartmann and Apaolaza-Ibáñez (2010) also showed that most emotions evoked by nature in advertising are positive ones. Nature which is familiar to the participant even led to more favorable responses as opposed to advertisements which include urban environments and landscapes without vegetation. Hartmann, Apaolaza and Alija (2013) indicate the reason why it is smart for companies to use nature in their advertising. Advertising could benefit from the behavioral effect of interacting with nature. It improves the cognitive as well as the emotional processes (e.g. recognition and recall) that are used for advertising effectiveness (Hartmann, Apaolaza & Alija, 2013). They also showed that advertisements which include nature, cause similar emotional reactions as being in actual nature, such as relaxation.

As shown, nature can have different effects on different people and is used in advertisements for a variety of reasons. Nature in advertising can even have the same influences as being in nature or seeing images of nature, such relaxation. One of the most important effects nature can have is the capacity to provide psychological restoration. In the following chapter, this phenomenon will be explained in more depth.

2.3 Attention restoration theory

When suffering from fatigue, there are different actions a person could undertake. One of the most obvious actions is, of course, sleeping. But restoration from fatigue can come from unexpected places as well, and nature is one of those places (Kaplan, 1995).

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Aperson could benefit from being in a natural environment because it is not necessary to rely on directed attention in that instance. It can recover the capacity by resting the inhibitory mechanism which directed attention depends on (Staats, Kieviet & Hartig, 2003). Directed attention comes originally from voluntary attention. “It requires effort, plays a central role in achieving focus, is under voluntary control (at least some of the time), is susceptible to fatigue, and controls distraction through the use of inhibition” (Kaplan, 1995, p. 170). When linking this to nature in advertising, Berman, Jonides and Kaplan (2008) have shown that seeing images of nature can possibly improve directed attention abilities.

Some settings can help recover from problems deriving from attentional fatigue. These are known as restorative settings (Herzog, Chen & Primeau, 2002; Berto, 2005). Natural environments have many characteristics that can lead to recovery of attention and can even help soften stress (Kaplan, 1995). Being and viewing natural scenes can help in stressful environments with relieving stress and improving wellbeing (Maller, Townsend, Pryor, Brown & Leger, 2005). It can even help healing faster after a surgery in comparison to an urban scene (Maller, Townsend, Pryor, Brown & Leger, 2005).

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attention, but name on the contrary that hard fascinating environments can give opportunity for attention recovery as well.

Besides fascination, there are three other components that are important in making an environment restorative. The second is that one should be freed from mental activity when in that environment (being away) and the third is that the environment should be comprehensible and rich enough to be a whole other world (extent) (Kaplan, 1995). Lastly, there should be a fit between the setting and what one would like and is trying to do (compatibility) (Kaplan, 1995).

Urban environments on the other hand, are less restorative than natural environments because they do not meet all the four requirements needed to be a restorative environment (Kaplan, 1995). Urban environments also contain lots of stimuli that capture much attention which need additional directed attention, which does not provide an opportunity for restoration (Berman, Jonides & Kaplan, 2008). These environments are low on fascination but demand higher directed attention which makes them unsuitable for directed attention recovery (Herzog, Black, Fountaine & Knotts, 1997). Urban environments are less restorative than mundane nature environments (Herzog, Black, Fountaine & Knotts, 1997).

Research by Hartmann, Apaolaza and Alija (2013) has shown that advertisements containing nature have the same effect as images and actually being in nature. As mentioned before, environments should meet certain requirements to restore directed attention. Berman and Kaplan (2010) mention that directed attention is a resource for self-regulation and executive functioning. This means that directed attention is needed to regulate oneself. When directed attention abilities are improved by nature, it seems that the decision to choose a product that is healthier (cognitive decision) is made easier.

2.4 Self-control & Self-Regulation

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the self” (p. 247). It occurs when people are trying to change the way they would otherwise feel, think or behave (Muraven & Baumeister, 2000).

Kaplan and Berman (2010) showed that directed attention is a resource of self-regulation; it helps with information processing and is susceptible to depletion. Baumeister and Heatherton (1996) and Kouchaki and Smith’s (2014) both mention that when being fatigued, it depletes one’s strength to override responses one wishes to control and failure of self-regulation becomes more likely. In order to resist temptation, self-control is needed (Muraven & Baumeister, 2000). For most people unhealthy products are more tempting than healthy products, and thus require more self-regulation.

2.5 Healthy choices

On a daily basis, customers have to make over two hundred food decisions (Wansink & Sobal, 2007). Since the risks of consuming too much unhealthy food are commonly known (e.g. high blood pressure), it is important to make healthy food choices in everyday life. But making healthy choices is not always as easy as it sounds. The most important reason for failing to eat healthily is a lack of self-control and finding that unhealthy food tastes better (Paulussen & Temminghoff, 2010). Self-control is not consistently at the same level during the day. Baumeister and Heatherton (1996) state that people break their diets most often late at night since fatigue can cause a failure of self-regulation. Kouchaki and Smith’s (2014) show that being fatigued causes a loss of self-control and makes people cognitively weaker. Research by Shiv and Fedorikhin (1999) indicates that when processing resources are limited, participants chose the unhealthy affective alternative (chocolate cake) way more often than the healthy cognitive alternative (fruit salad).

Healthy foods can be characterized as virtue foods and unhealthy foods as vice foods. A vice is an affective want that is motivated by impulses and a virtue is more a cognitive and reasoned option (Khan, Dhar & Wertenbroch, 2005). Choosing a vice food product entails small but instant hedonic gratification with larger but less positive and delayed consequences. When choosing a product that will be consumed in the short term, we might choose something that is bad for us in the long run but appeals more to us now (Khan, Dhar & Wertenbroch, 2005).

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their health, strive to sustain their well-being through engaging in healthy behavior and are concerned about their health, they are being health conscious (Mai & Hoffmann, 2012). When consumers are health conscious, they are already trying to make healthy food decisions. They will put more cognitive effort in eating healthily (Mai & Hoffmann, 2012).

In sum, nature can cause a restoration of directed attention, which is a resource for self-regulation (Kaplan & Berman, 2010). It seems that depletion can cause a loss of self-control and self-regulation (Kouchaki & Smith’s, 2014). Self-control and directed attention abilities are needed in order to make smart and healthy choices (Kouchaki & Smith’s, 2014). It is expected that nature could lead to restoration and better self-regulation which could eventually lead to a healthier choice.

Nature relatedness

There are factors that can possibly influence the expected relationship between depletion, type of environment shown in advertisements and healthy product decisions. One of these expected factors is nature relatedness. Some people feel closer connected to the natural world than others. Nisbet, Zelenski and Murphy (2009) came up with the term nature relatedness for this concept. This trait is stable over time and across situations (though not fixed completely), is “one’s appreciation for and understanding of our interconnectedness with all other living things on the earth” (p. 718). Research by Howell, Dopko, Passmore and Buro (2011) also indicate that people who are highly connected with nature show higher levels of psychological well-being. Although there is no research yet on nature related persons being healthier, there are some indicators that raise suspicion about nature relatedness and being more involved with health. Research by Cervinka, Roderer and Hefler (2012) showed that people who are highly connected with nature score very high on psychological well being and vitality.

Moreover, if nature related people feel more vital, this could be due to the healthy lifestyle they pursue. Besides, one could argue that customers who feel closer connected to nature are also more receptive for advertisements with nature. This might cause the expected restoration effect to be stronger.

2.6 Hypotheses & Conceptual model

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that advertisements, which contain nature, will lead to more attention restoration and a healthier subsequent product choice.

As indicated in literature, nature relatedness is not directly linked to people having a healthier lifestyle. However, nature related persons who interact a lot with nature are generally more vital and are in a better state of physiological well-being (Cervinka, Roderer & Hefler, 2012). Furthermore, nature related people could be more receptive to advertisements containing nature. These insights and expectations lead to the formulation of the first and main hypotheses:

H1: When suffering from fatigue, seeing advertisements with natural (spectacular and mundane nature) as opposed to urban backgrounds will cause the subsequent product choice to be healthier.

H1a: Attentional fatigue will be restored by the natural environments (spectacular and mundane nature) in advertisements.

H1b: The effect of showing fatigued consumers advertisements with natural as opposed to urban backgrounds on subsequent product choice will be strengthened by high nature relatedness.

This research will explore whether there is a difference between two types of nature settings, namely spectacular versus mundane nature. Previous research has mostly studied the effects of mundane nature. People however also enjoy spectacular nature, which raises the question how the effects of the latter type of nature compare with the effects of mundane nature.

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environments are more likely to be restorative because of the recovery of directed attention (Herzog, Chen & Primeau, 2002). However, it is still not entirely clear if spectacular nature is hard or softly fascinating. The second hypothesis consists out of two parts and is formulated as follows;

H2a: Spectacular nature will cause stronger restoration than mundane nature and urban environments.

H2b: Stronger restoration will lead to more consumers choosing the healthier product.

When a consumer is involved with his or her own health on a high level, chances are that healthy choices will be made regardless of being exposed to nature. The advertisements shown will probably have little to no influence on the subsequent food decision, since the health conscious participants will go for the healthy product either way. Fatigue probably won’t affect the level of health consciousness either. These insights lead to the third hypothesis;

H3: Being a health conscious individual will cause choosing the healthier product alternative either way, fatigue or the environment of the advertisements will have no effect on the sequent product choice.

The six different conditions that will be tested in this research can be seen in figure 2. A non depletion control group will also be part of the research and expected is that this group, with three different conditions (spectacular nature, mundane nature and urban environment), still yield certain results. Research by Berman, Jonides and Kaplan (2008) has shown that restorative effects of nature also occur when the participants were not depleted but were divided in two groups (being exposed to nature and being exposed to urban environments). They also state that nature is a way to restore which can improve cognitive functioning.

Spectacular nature Mundane nature Urban sight

15 Non depletion (control group) Expectation: Healthy product choice (++) Expectation: Healthy product choice (+) Expectation: Unhealthy product choice (-)

Figure 2: The six different conditions

When adding all these aspects together, the conceptual model can be formed. This model can be seen in figure 3. An experiment will clarify if advertisements which include nature will have an effect on choices consumers make. Two important other factors (health consciousness and nature relatedness) will be taken into account. Health consciousness will be a covariate and nature relatedness is expected to have a moderating role on the relationship between environment shown and product decision. After explaining the method, statistical tests will show if the expected relationships are proven. After these results, a discussion chapter will be provided in which conclusions will be drawn, limitations of the research will be provided, practical implications will be given, and ideas for further research will be discussed.

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Figure 3: Conceptual model

3.

Method

3.1 Participants & Design

Of the 184 participants who filled in the questionnaire, 43 did not fill in the entire survey and dropped out prematurely. This resulted in 141 responses that were used for the analyses. Of these participants, 40 were male (28.4%) and 101 were female (71.6%) with an average age of

M = 29.38 (SD = 12.33). They were recruited via social media, email and through personal

contacts. There were no restrictions for participating in the research except for being able to understand English, since the survey was in that language. Qualtrics was used to conduct the online survey and the participants did not receive any reward for participating.

The study had a between-subjects design, with type of environment (spectacular nature versus mundane nature versus urban environment) and depletion (depletion versus non depletion) as the independent variables. The dependent variable was the (un)healthy product decision made (see figure 2 for the different conditions).

3.2 Materials

Depletion manipulation

Participants in the non depletion task were asked to retype a 50 worded text as accurately as possible. Participants in the depletion condition were asked to retype the same 50 worded text as accurately as possible without typing the e’s and leaving the spaces out. This depletion test was taken from Muraven, Shmueli and Burkley (2006), and has shown to be a strong elicitor of depletion.

Environmental images

The different groups of participants needed to be exposed to advertising containing different types of nature/environment. In order to do this, the participants were divided into three groups (1: spectacular nature condition, 2: mundane nature condition and 3: urban environment

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condition). The three different groups got to see advertisements followed by images of spectacular nature, mundane nature or an urban environment. In each condition the same five unhealthy product advertisements were shown followed by an image of either spectacular nature (condition 1), mundane nature (condition 2) or an urban environment (condition 3). A total of 20 different images were used, with 10 images shown in each condition (5 images of each environment and 5 advertisements in each condition). Sample images of the different type of nature can be found in figure 4.Each participant was exposed to the same set of five images of their groups’ type of environment. All the participants saw the same five (unhealthy) advertisements. Each advertisement was followed by an image of the groups’ environment. An example of an image in each condition and an example of the advertisements used can be found in figure 4. Each image was in color, the same size (about 400 x 300), of high quality (clear, sharp & colorful) and found on the internet. They were selected based on literature and the idea of spectacular nature and mundane nature. Five images commonly referred to as spectacular nature were used. Examples of these images were an image of the Grand Canyon and a waterfall (Joye & Bolderdijk, 2014). These environments are big natural phenomenons which are likely to elicit a greater dose of awe than mundane environments (Keltner & Haidt, 2003). For the mundane nature condition images of nature commonly found in the Netherlands were used. Examples are an image of a Dutch park, a meadow and an image of the forest. These images are mundane because they do not take too much attention since they are soflty fascinating (Herzog, Black, Fountaine & Knotts, 1997). In the urban condition different images of cities and streets were used. Special attention was paid to make sure that the urban environment images did not contain any nature and had as little people or cars in them as possible.

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Urban environment Advertisement

Figure 4: Examples of images used in the different conditions and an example of an

advertisement used in every condition

Measures

Mood

In order to measure the mood of the participants a slider scale was used. This question with a 100-point scale ranging from 1 = (the worst I have ever felt), to 100 = (the best I have ever felt). This mood measurement is taken from Sherman, Haidt, and Coan (2009).

Depletion

To obtain a manipulation check for depletion, a scale taken from Bertrams, Englert and Dickhäuser (2010) was used. The participant had to fill in how they felt about the following items on a 7-point Likert scale (ranging from 1 = not at all to 7 = very) ‘‘How difficult did you find the task?”, ‘‘How effortful did you find the task?”, and ‘‘How depleted do you feel at the moment?”. The Chronbach’s Alpha of this scale was α = .70.

Restoration

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Product decision

In order to find out how type of environment and depletion influences the subsequent product decision, two colored images of products of the same size and with a white background were displayed on both ends of a 7-point scale. An example of a product decision can be found in figure 6. One side had the label: “definitely choose the (name of unhealthy/vice product)” and the other side had the label “definitely choose the (name of the healthy/virtue product)”. The middle point had the label “neither”. There were five different product decisions presented (with ten products in total). The reason for choosing more than one product decision was to rule out the possibility that participants simply dislike certain products and would choose a certain option either way (because they are for example, allergic to nuts). A salty vice product was always matched with a (more or less) salty virtue product. The same holds for the sweet products. Examples of product decisions were fruit salad and chocolate cake (used by Shiv & Fedorikhin, 1999) and potato chips and a salad. This scale was inspired by the product preference scale Luchs, Naylor, Irwin and Raghunathan (2010) used in their research. In this research, a total of three distraction product decisions were among the product decisions to disguise the real purpose of the study. This was done in order to distract the participants and made them think the research was about the products presented in the advertisements. This way the participants would not immediately suspect the research to be about influencing participants to make healthy product decisions. One new variable is constructed for the five product decisions (without the distraction product decisions) with a Chronbach’s Alpha of α = .75.

Ate a meal & appetite

To find out a little more about the participants, two questions about their appetite (how hungry the participants felt) and last meal were asked. This could influence how well they could resist temptation, and could therefore be entered as a covariate in the analyses. In order to find out when they ate their last meal the question “How many hours ago was the last time you ate a meal” with a blank space to fill in the amount of hours, was asked. To find out how hungry the

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participants were the question “How hungry are you?” was asked. They could indicate their hunger on a 7-point scale ranging from 1 = (not hungry at all) to 7 = (very hungry).

Health consciousness

To measure health consciousness of the participants a scale developed by Mai and Hoffmann (2012) was used. This scale consists of four different statements (“I reflect about my health a lot”, “I'm very self conscious about my health”, “I’m generally attentive to my inner feelings about my health” and “I’m constantly examining my health”). The scale has a Chronbach’s Alpha of α = .88. The items could be answered on a 5-point scale ranging from 1 = (Does not describe me at all) to 5 = (Describes me very well) which is taken from Gould (1988).

Nature relatedness

Nature relatedness could influence the way participants are receptive for the natural advertisements and/or could indicate a healthier lifestyle. In order to measure how nature related (NR) participants are, a scale developed by Nisbet, Zelenski and Murphy (2009) was used. This scale consists of 21 items which can divided in three categories; NR-self (e.g. “My relationship to nature is an important part of who I am”), NR-perspective (e.g. “Humans have the right to use natural resources in any way we want”) and NR-experience (e.g. “My ideal vacation spot would be a remote, wilderness area”). The items could be answered on a 5-point scale ranging from 1 = (strongly disagree) to 5 = (strongly agree). The Chronbach’s Alpha of the entire scale is α = .84.

3.3 Procedure

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asked to pay close attention to what they got to see. Each image was shown for seven seconds each and transition to the next image/advertisement was automatic. Each condition consisted of five advertisements of vice products with different images of spectacular nature, mundane nature or urban environments in between. After showing these ten images for seven seconds each, the participant had to fill in (randomly presented) questions to measure restoration.

Next was the product decision task. The participants had to make a decision which product they would like to consume if they were presented to them. Three of these decisions were not used because they served as a distraction. The five others were actually used for the research and consisted of a healthy/virtue and unhealthy/vice product image on each end. After these decisions questions about current mood, last time the participant ate and appetite were asked in random order. Finally, randomized questions about nature relatedness and health consciousness were asked.

4.

Results

4.1 Preliminary analyses

As mentioned in the methodology chapter, 141 responses were used for the analyses. Two of these 141 participants dropped out after making the product decisions and did not fill in the questions about nature relatedness and health consciousness. The answers they gave until till then were used for analyses. The number of participants in each condition can be found in table 1.

When looking at the differences between males and females, a significant difference in health consciousness was found with an independent samples t-test t(137) = -2.05, p = .042, males (M = 3.06, SD = 0.95) differed in their health consciousness from females (M = 3.41, SD = 0.89). Women appeared to be more health conscious than men.

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# of respondents Depletion condition Non depletion condition

Spectacular nature 23 23

Mundane nature 21 26

Urban environment 26 22

Table 1: Number of participants per condition

4.2 Main effects

4.2.1 Influence of depletion and environment on restoration

The restoration scale was used to see if the different environments actually caused restoration. A two way ANOVA was conducted with “restoration” as dependent variable and “type of environment shown” and “depletion” (non depleted versus depleted) as between-subjects variables. This showed a non statistical significant main effect of depletion on restoration

F(1,135) = 0.02, p = .886 and a non statistically significant main effect of environmental

condition restoration F(2,135) = 0.84, p = .434. The interaction between depletion and type of environment on restoration is not significant either F(2,135) = 1.62, p = .202. This means that the environment and being depleted or not had no influence on how restored the participants felt.

4.2.2 Influence of depletion and environment on product decision

To find out what the effect is of nature in advertising on product decision, a two-way ANOVA was performed with “product decision” as the dependent variable, “environmental condition” (spectacular nature versus mundane nature versus urban environment) and “depletion” (non depleted versus depleted) as the between-subjects variable and “time since last meal”, “how hungry do you feel” and “health consciousness” as the covariates.

No statistically significant result was found for type of environment on product decision

F(2,130) = 0.19, p = .831 and no statistically significant result was found for depletion on

product decision F(1,130) = 0.13, p = .717. Finally, no significant interaction between depletion and type of environment on product decision was found, F(2,130) = 0.13, p = .879. The descriptives of the main effects can be found in table 2.

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correlation analysis with “how hungry do you feel” and “product decision” was performed. This analysis showed that appetite of the participants did correlate significantly with product decision (r = -.280, p = .001). This means that appetite did cause a different product decision. Analysis of the covariates in the two-way ANOVA showed that there was a statistically significant effect of appetite (how hungry the participants felt) on product decision, F(1, 130) = 13.84, p = .000. Another finding was that the covariate being health conscious significantly influences the product decision, F(1,130) = 5.05, p = .026. When participants were very conscious about their own health, they tended to go for healthier products than participants who are not health conscious. There was no statistically significant effect of hours since the last meal on product decision F(1,130) = 0.52, p = .474.

Post hoc tests revealed that within both the depletion and non depletion condition there was no significant difference between the spectacular nature condition, mundane nature condition and the urban environment condition (all p’s > .281).

Depletion / Non depletion Type of environment N Mean SD

Depletion condition Spectacular nature 22 4.82 1.54

Mundane nature 21 4.93 1.55

Urban environment 26 4.62 1.56

Total 69 4.78 1.54

Non depletion condition Spectacular nature 23 4.70 1.24

Mundane nature 25 5.00 1.36

Urban environment 22 4.62 1.49

Total 70 4.78 1.35

Table 2: Descriptives of the effects of the different conditions on product decision

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A statistically significant result was found for type of environment on the first product decision

F(2,130) = 3.80, p =

.025. The type of environment seen has influenced this product decision. Depletion had no significant effect on the first real

product deciscion F(1,130) = 2.19, p = .142. Finally, no statististically significant interaction was found between depletion and the type of environment F(2,130) = .24, p = .789. Figure 5 shows the effects type of environment shown and depletion had on the first product decision (the higher the score, the healthier the product).

Before analysis of the covariates, a bivariate correlation analysis with “how hungry do you feel” and “product decision 1” was performed. This analysis yielded no significant result (r = -.132,

p = .120). Appetite did not influence product decision 1. Analysis of the covariates showed that

being a health conscious individual significantly influenced the product decision, F(1,130) = 4.97, p = .028. When participants were very conscious about their own health, they tended to go for healthier products than participants who were not health conscious. There was a marginally significant effect of how hungry the participants felt on product decision, F(1, 130) = 3.45, p = .066. Appetite of the participants as a covariate did influence their preference for the first product decision marginally significant. There was no statistically significant effect of the covariate hours since the last meal on product decision F(1,130) = 1.70, p = .196. The effects of the other four product decisions can be found in appendix 1.

Post hoc tests revealed significant differences between the different conditions. Within the depletion condition, results suggest that the spectacular nature condition (M = 5.87, SD = 1.74) led to a significantly healthier choice on the first product decision than the urban environment condition (M = 4.62, SD = 2.40), (p = .028). Mundane nature in this condition (M = 5.38, SD = 1.99) did not differ significantly from the urban environment, p = .188, or from spectacular nature, p = .413. Within the non depletion condition, mundane nature (M = 6.12, SD = 1.56)

Figure 5: Effect of type of environment and depletion on

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and urban environment (M = 5.00, SD = 2.23) differed marginally significant from each other,

p = .053. Spectacular nature (M = 5.91, SD = 1.78) in the non depletion condition did not differ

significantly from mundane nature, p = .720, and did not differ from the urban environment in that condition p = .123.

4.2.3 Influence of depletion and environment on restoration

In order to find out if there is a relationship between the different conditions and the amount of restoration, a two way ANOVA was performed with “restoration scale” as the dependent variable and “environmental condition” (spectacular nature versus mundane nature versus urban environment) and “depletion” (non depleted versus depleted) as the between-subjects variable. No statistically significant result was found for type of environment on restoration

F(2,135) = 0.84, p = .434 and no statistically significant result was found for depletion on

restoration F(1,135) = 0.02, p = .886. Finally, no significant interaction between depletion and type of environment on restoration was found, F(2,135) = 1.62, p = .202. Post hoc tests yielded one marginal significant result in the non depletion condition between mundane nature (M = 3.84, SD = 0.96) and the urban environment (M = 4.30, SD = 0.88), p = 0.063. The other conditions yielded no noteworthy significant contrasts (all p’s > .106), the descriptives can be found in table 3.

Depletion / Non depletion Type of environment N Mean SD

Depletion condition Spectacular nature 23 3.89 0.99

Mundane nature 21 4.18 0.93

Urban environment 26 4.09 0.61

Total 70 4.05 0.85

Non depletion condition Spectacular nature 23 4.08 0.73

Mundane nature 26 3.84 0.96

Urban environment 22 4.30 0.88

Total 71 4.06 0.88

Table 3: Descriptives the different conditions on restoration

4.2.4 Relation between restoration and product decision

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results either (r = .014, p = .869). This means that restoration did not cause a different product decision.

4.3 Moderator analysis

To find out if nature relatedness has a moderating role on the relationship of environment on product decision, a hierarchical multiple regression analysis was conducted. To start, the dependent variable “product decision” and the independent variable “type of environment” and “nature relatedness” were included in the analysis. This analysis was not significant, R² = .012,

F(2,136) = .824, p = .441. The two variables type of environment and nature relatedness did

not account for a significant amount of variance in product decision.

The interaction between “type of environment” and the moderator “nature relatedness” was examined next, which did not accounted for a significant proportion of the variance in product decision, ΔR² = .003 , ΔF(1, 135) = .380 , p = .539, b = -.197 , t(135) = -.670, p = .485. The interaction of environment and nature relatedness showed that nature relatedness did not moderate the relationship between type of environment and product decision.

In order to see if nature relatedness influences the relationship between the type of environment and the first product decision (chocolate cake versus fruit salad), the same hierarchical multiple regression analysis was performed. The dependent variable “product decision 1” and the independent variable “type of environment” and “nature relatedness” were included in the analysis. This analysis was significant, R² = .064, F(2,136) = 4.658, p = .011. The two variables type of environment and nature relatedness did account for a significant amount of variance in product decision.

The interaction between “type of environment” and the moderator “nature relatedness” was examined next, which did not accounted for a significant proportion of the variance in product decision, ΔR² = .000 , ΔF(1, 135) = .064 , p = .800, b = .111, t(135) = .206, p = .837. The interaction of environment and nature relatedness showed that nature relatedness did not moderate the relationship between type of environment and the first product decision.

4.4 Mood measurement

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the second mood measurement F(2,137)= 5.53, p = .005 was found. Mood at point 1 had a significant influence on mood at point 2, F(1,137) = 601.47, p = .000.

When post hoc testing, the differences in mood 2 for the different environments can be seen. The mundane nature condition (M = 64.40, SD = 13.88) led to a significantly lower mood than the urban environment (M = 69.81, SD = 12.25), p = 0.041. The mundane nature (M = 64.40,

SD = 13.87) condition did not differ significantly from the spectacular nature condition (M =

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5. Discussion

Within the western society, obesity is becoming a growing problem. In order to stop this development, it is very important for the consumer to make healthy food choices. But those choices are easier said than done. In order to make healthy product decisions, self-control is needed (Paulussen & Temminghoff, 2010). Advertising can have different effects on the consumer according to the literature. Kaplan (1995) indicated that nature can cause restoration of attention. Since Hartmann, Apaolaza and Alija (2013) showed that nature in advertising has the same influence as being in nature, nature in advertising is assumed to have the same restorative capacity. This restored attention can be useful for making healthy choices, since it can promote self-regulation (Kaplan & Berman, 2010) and self-regulation is needed to resist temptations.The purpose of this research was to find out if nature in advertising could lead the consumer to making healthy food choices.

5.1 Theoretical contributions

When looking at the results, several conclusions can be drawn. These outcomes will be discussed and connected to the literature reviewed in the previous chapters.

According to the self measurement scale to measure the depletion manipulation, the participants in the depletion group did feel more depleted compared to the non depletion condition. This means that the manipulation had an effect on the participants. The scale to measure restoration on the other hand, showed that the different conditions (mundane nature, spectacular nature and the urban environment) did not restore the participants in a significantly different way. Spectacular nature and mundane nature had no restorative effect according to the restoration scale. This means that hypothesis H1a, attentional fatigue will be restored by the natural

environments (spectacular and mundane nature) in advertisements, is not supported. This

contradicts the literature that states that advertisements containing nature have the same restorative effects as being in actual nature (Hartmann, Apaolaza & Alija, 2013). A possible explanation could be that the participants were not exposed to the environmental images long enough to cause a restoration effect. Berto (2005) who proved that images of nature can restore attention capacity, showed her participants 25 environmental images for 15 second each, while in this research 5 environmental images were showed for 7 seconds each.

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type of advertisement they are exposed, it will not influence their subsequent product decision. These insights lead to the conclusion that the main hypothesis H1, when suffering from fatigue,

seeing advertisements with natural (spectacular and mundane nature) as opposed to urban backgrounds will cause the subsequent product choice to be healthier, is not supported. No

significant differences between the conditions are found. When looking at the literature discussed, this is opposed to what was expected. According to Hartmann, Apaolaza and Alija (2013) nature in advertisements has shown to have the same restorative effect as images and actually being in nature. Furthermore, according to Kaplan and Berman (2010), directed attention which can be restored by nature, is a common resource for self-regulation and cognitive functioning. Moreover, nature is supposed to have restorative qualities which can help restoring directed attention and thus self-control (Kaplan, 1995).

The hypotheses concerning spectacular nature H2a, spectacular nature will cause stronger

restoration than mundane nature and urban environments and H2b, stronger restoration will lead to more consumers choosing the healthier product, are not supported either. It seems that

spectacular nature did not lead to stronger restoration. This is opposite of what is expected from literature. Spectacular nature possibly does not lead to stronger fascination (what could be a result of awe) and thus does not cause stronger restoration.

The appetite of the participants directly influenced the total product decision. The results of bivariate correlation analysis and the covariates analysis showed that appetite of the participants had an influence on product decision. The hungrier the participants were, the unhealthier the subsequent food choice was. The covariate analysis also showed that individuals who are health conscious tend to go for the healthier product option than individuals who are not health conscious. This confirms H3: Being a health conscious individual will cause choosing the

healthier product alternative either way, fatigue or the environment of the advertisements will have no effect on the sequent product choice. Being health conscious did influence the product

decision of those participants. It seems to be true that those participants are more concerned about their own health, were more motivated to undertake health action and strive to sustain their well-being through engaging in healthy behavior (Mai & Hoffmann, 2012) and thus choose the healthier product alternative.

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through engaging in healthy behavior and are more concerned about their own health (Mai & Hoffmann, 2012).

The conditions for mediation were not met which lead to the assumption that restoration does not mediate the relationship between the independent variables depletion and type of environment and the dependent variable product decision. This also applies when looking at the product decisions separately. This contradicts the literature since Kaplan (1995) has shown that natural environments have characteristics that can lead to restoration of attentional fatigue. Research by Kaplan and Berman (2010) has shown that restoration of directed attention is a resource for the necessary self-control used for choosing the healthy option. This research does not support those claims.

When looking at the separate product decisions interesting results are found. Type of environment has influence on the first product decision (chocolate cake versus fruit salad). This means that respondents who were exposed to certain environments made different subsequent food choices compared to respondents in other groups. The results show that participants who are depleted and are exposed to advertising with spectacular nature choose the healthier product in comparison to the participants who are exposed to advertising with urban environments. This is partially in line with the literature discussed. Being exposed to spectacular nature could have resulted in strong fascination which causes attention restoration (Herzog, Black, Fountaine & Knotts, 1997). Urban environments on the other hand do not meet the requirements for a restorative environment which makes them less restorative (Kaplan, 1995). For this product decision the hypotheses about spectacular nature H2a, spectacular nature will cause stronger

restoration than mundane nature and urban environments, and H2b,stronger restoration will lead to more consumers choosing the healthier product, cannot be confirmed with certainty.

The results show that spectacular nature differs significantly from urban environments but significant differences between spectacular nature and mundane nature are not shown. For this product decision, nature seems to lead to a healthier choice. Since there is no mediation effect of restoration, the true reason why respondents in the spectacular nature condition tend to choose healthier products is unexplained.

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existing literature. The second reason is that the results might be due to the position it had in the questionnaire. This product decision was the first real product decision and was always the first product decisions the participants got exposed to. This could make the participants more attentive for it and/or could possibly influence how serious they filled in the product decisions since they might have gotten bored or tired after a few and just filled it in at random.

A moderation analysis has shown that nature relatedness does not influence the relationship between the environment in advertising and the product decision made afterwards. This means that H1b is not supported since the effect of showing fatigued consumers advertisements with

natural as opposed to urban backgrounds on subsequent product choice is not strengthened by high nature relatedness. Even though people who score high on nature relatedness are shown

to be more vital (Cervinka, Roderer & Hefler, 2012), this does not necessarily mean they always choose the healthier alternative when choosing between products.

In this research, type of environment seems to have an influence on the mood of the participants. Opposite of what one would expect, participants who were exposed to advertisements with urban environments had a better mood than people who were exposed to mundane nature. Spectacular nature falls in between but does not differ significantly from the other conditions. This is inconsistent with what Joye and Bolderdijk (2014) and Ryan, Weinstein, Bernstein, Brown, Mistretta and Gagne (2010) have found with their research. They have shown that nature in general and especially spectacular nature is mood lifting compared to urban environments.

5.2 Practical implications

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conscious individuals because they tend to go for the healthier product. Finally, when you are trying to bring consumers in the best mood with an advertisement, this research showed that it might be useful to use an urban environment since this research has proven to cause the best mood. Although, as previously mentioned, this is inconsistent with the literature discussed. 5.3 Limitations & Future research

The reason why some of the results contradict the literature could be diverse. To start of this research was done by having respondents fill in a questionnaire. This makes it harder to control them because they might not fill in what they actually want or feel but what is the desired answer. Especially the self rating scale on depletion and restoration are a limitation here. The same holds for the product decisions. Since the product decisions were two images that were shown to the participant on a screen, the actual product decision might not have been measured. Participants could have given an answer that they wish they would make in every day live since the choice in the survey did not feel realistic enough. The decision participants would make when the two products were really in front of them might have been very different from what they answered in the online survey. Furthermore, the questionnaire was in English while most participants who filled it in were Dutch. Although the questionnaire was pretested, it could be that some of the participants did not understand certain questions and therefore filled in an answer that did not corresponded with their actual feelings or personality. Moreover, the restoration by the (natural) images between the advertisements could be reduced by the restoration scale. Since the participants had to respond to eight statements, the restoration effect could be already faded when they had to fill in the product decisions. A last limitation could be the men-women ratio. Over two third of the participants of this research were women. Results show that women are more health conscious than men. This could explain why the manipulations had no effect since women would make healthier choices either way. To make the results more trustworthy, a more equal men-women ratio would be recommended.

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product decisions was found in the literature, research could be done to find out what product decisions are appropriate for this analysis. Having a more varied testing population could make the results more reliable. In the end it is very interesting to invest in more research on healthy choices and how something ordinary like advertising could influence the choices people make in everyday life.

5.4 Conclusion

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7. Appendix

Appendix 1: Effects of depletion, environment and the interaction on the different items of