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The Comfort Food Fallacy: Avoiding Old Favorites in Times of Change

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  • Stacy Wood

Abstract

Consumers hold a common intuition about their preferences for familiar things (e.g., "comfort food") in times of upheaval. This lay theory holds that familiar goods are attractive as a respite from dynamic environments and reflects a naive prediction that familiar favorites ameliorate the cognitive or emotional load associated with change. Conversely, the research in this article finds that consumers are more rather than less likely to choose novel options during times of upheaval and suggests that this paradox may occur because of the discrepancy between consumers' strategic lay theories and more automatic mind-set influences. Five studies demonstrate (1) that the comfort food fallacy effect occurs for both food and nonfood choices (despite consumer predictions to the contrary), (2) that increasing consumers' perception of life change decreases choice of familiar favorites, and (3) that the effect disappears with high involvement. Understanding this paradox of comfort consumption may help both consumers and marketers promote positive change and innovation adoption. (c) 2009 by JOURNAL OF CONSUMER RESEARCH, Inc..

Suggested Citation

  • Stacy Wood, 2010. "The Comfort Food Fallacy: Avoiding Old Favorites in Times of Change," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 36(6), pages 950-963, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:oup:jconrs:v:36:y:2010:i:6:p:950-963
    DOI: 10.1086/644749
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Drescher, Larissa S. & Hasselbach, Johanna, 2014. "Food Choices under Stress: Considering Internet Usage and Social Support," 2014 AAEA/EAAE/CAES Joint Symposium: Social Networks, Social Media and the Economics of Food, May 29-30, 2014, Montreal, Canada 166097, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    2. Jessica Lichy & Kevin Pon, 2013. "The role of (foreign?) culture on consumer buying behaviour: What changes when living abroad?," Transnational Marketing Journal, Oxbridge Publishing House, UK, vol. 1(1), pages 5-21, October.
    3. Adapa, Sujana & Fazal-e-Hasan, Syed Muhammad & Makam, Sathyaprakash Balaji & Azeem, Muhammad Masood & Mortimer, Gary, 2020. "Examining the antecedents and consequences of perceived shopping value through smart retail technology," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 52(C).
    4. Lieberman, Alicea & Amir, On & Carmon, Ziv, 2023. "The entrenchment effect: Why people persist with less-preferred behaviors," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 178(C).
    5. Zielke, Stephan & Komor, Marcin & Schlößer, Andrea, 2023. "Coping strategies and intended change of shopping habits after the Corona pandemic – Insights from two countries in Western and Eastern Europe," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 72(C).
    6. Reitmeier, Martina & Roosen, Jutta, 2014. "Life Transitions and Food Choice Behavior in Older Adults: How Changes in Social Relationships are Linked to Changes in Brand Preferences," 2014 AAEA/EAAE/CAES Joint Symposium: Social Networks, Social Media and the Economics of Food, May 29-30, 2014, Montreal, Canada 166111, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    7. R. Bret Leary & Rhiannon MacDonnell Mesler & Bonnie Simpson & Matthew D. Meng & William Montford, 2022. "Effects of perceived scarcity on COVID‐19 consumer stimulus spending: The roles of ontological insecurity and mutability in predicting prosocial outcomes," Journal of Consumer Affairs, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 56(3), pages 1046-1061, September.
    8. Ainsworth, Jeremy & Foster, Jamye, 2017. "Comfort in brick and mortar shopping experiences: Examining antecedents and consequences of comfortable retail experiences," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 35(C), pages 27-35.
    9. Kosse, A., 2014. "Consumer payment choices : Room for further digisation?," Other publications TiSEM 7486cb21-13a2-4609-bad6-e, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    10. Litt, Ab & Reich, Taly & Maymin, Senia & Shiv, Baba, 2010. "Pressure and Perverse Flights to Familiarity," Research Papers 2073, Stanford University, Graduate School of Business.
    11. Wang, Ze & Arndt, Aaron D. & Singh, Surendra N. & Biernat, Monica & Liu, Fan, 2013. "“You Lost Me at Hello”: How and when accent-based biases are expressed and suppressed," International Journal of Research in Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 30(2), pages 185-196.
    12. Steils, Nadia, 2021. "Using in-store customer education to act upon the negative effects of impulsiveness in relation to unhealthy food consumption," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 59(C).
    13. Nicole Koschate-Fischer & Wayne D. Hoyer & Nicola E. Stokburger-Sauer & Jan Engling, 2018. "Do life events always lead to change in purchase? The mediating role of change in consumer innovativeness, the variety seeking tendency, and price consciousness," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Springer, vol. 46(3), pages 516-536, May.
    14. Bublitz, Melissa G. & Peracchio, Laura A. & Andreasen, Alan R. & Kees, Jeremy & Kidwell, Blair & Miller, Elizabeth Gelfand & Motley, Carol M. & Peter, Paula C. & Rajagopal, Priyali & Scott, Maura L. &, 2013. "Promoting positive change: Advancing the food well-being paradigm," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 66(8), pages 1211-1218.

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