Study tests effects of social media posts on valuation of chocolate

Does triggering certain emotions increase willingness to pay for sustainably produced food? On social media, emotional messages are often used to influence users’ consumer behavior. An international research team including the University of Göttingen investigated the short- and medium-term effects of such content on consumers’ willingness to pay for bars of chocolate. They found that in the short term, provoking certain emotions increases willingness to pay, but the effect weakens after a very short time. The results are published in the journal Q Open.

Food and its production can have social and ecological costs that impact globally on both current and future generations. For example, cocoa cultivation is often associated with child labor and deforestation. Supermarket shelves display chocolate bars labeled with promises of sustainably sourced cocoa. However, their market share remains comparatively low. To encourage more sustainable consumption, social media is increasingly using emotive messages.

The researchers therefore investigated whether emotional content has a positive effect on purchasing behavior: to do this, the team randomly divided over 2,000 participants into four groups. They showed each group different social media posts about cocoa cultivation in the form of videos—either factual with information about deforestation or child labor, or with the same information but reinforced with emotional elements.

The study shows that triggering emotions increases the willingness to pay for sustainable chocolate in the short term. Participants who were confronted with emotional content were more willing to spend more money on chocolate with a sustainability label or promise.

“This effect is due, in particular, to negative emotions such as fear, anger or sadness, which are triggered by images of child labor or deforestation,” explains lead author Dr. Liza von Grafenstein at the research institute IDinsight in New Delhi. However, the effect weakened noticeably within two weeks. The emotional reaction diminished, and after some time, participants who had seen emotional content rated sustainable labels and sustainability claims even lower than those who only received factual information.

“The results suggest that emotional content in social media campaigns can be an effective way to promote sustainable consumption in the short term,” explains Dr. Sarah Iweala, Research Associate at Göttingen University’s Marketing for Food and Agricultural Products research group. Dr. Anette Ruml, German Institute for Global and Area Studies in Hamburg, adds, “However, the timing of the campaigns must be strategically chosen to maximize their influence on real purchasing decisions.”

“Our results also show, however, that purely factual information is at least as effective, especially in the medium-term,” emphasizes Dr. Stefan Pahl of the United Nations Industrial Development Organization in Vienna.