Research report Dissociation from beloved unhealthy brands decreases preference for and consumption of vegetables ☆ Rebecca K. Trump a, *, Paul M. Connell b , Stacey R. Finkelstein c a The Sellinger School of Business and Management, Loyola University Maryland, 4501 North Charles Street, Baltimore, MD 21210, USA b Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY 11794, USA c Zicklin College of Business, Baruch College, City University New York, One Bernard Baruch Way, New York, NY 10010, USA ARTICLE INFO Article history: Received 12 January 2015 Received in revised form 7 May 2015 Accepted 19 May 2015 Available online 22 May 2015 Keywords: Branding Dissociation Identity Self-concept Self-regulation Vegetable consumption A B ST R AC T Many people form strong bonds with brands, including those for unhealthy foods. Thus, prompting people to dissociate from beloved but unhealthy food brands is an intuitively appealing means to shift con- sumption away from unhealthy options and toward healthy options. Contrary to this position, we demonstrate that dissociating from unhealthy but beloved brands diminishes people’s interest in con- suming vegetables because the dissociation depletes self-regulatory resources. Across three experimental studies, we manipulate dissociation from two beloved brands both implicitly (studies 1–2) and explic- itly (study 3) and observe effects on both preference for vegetables (studies 2–3) and actual vegetable consumption (study 1). In study 1, participants consumed fewer vegetables following dissociation from (vs. association with) a beloved candy brand. Study 2 demonstrates that the effect of depletion on pref- erence for vegetables is more pronounced for those who strongly identify with the brand, as these individuals are most depleted by the dissociation attempt. Finally, study 3 illustrates that the difficulty experienced when trying to dissociate from beloved brands drives the observed effects on vegetable pref- erence and consumption for those who strongly (vs. weakly) identify with the brand. © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Introduction Obesity rates continue to climb worldwide, leading to costly as- sociated public health problems, such as type 2 diabetes and heart disease. A large body of research has converged on the conclusion that an obesogenic environment, in which inexpensive and palat- able calorie-dense foods are ubiquitous and food marketing is pervasive for unhealthy foods, plays a key role (e.g., Mokdad et al., 2003; Wadden, Brownell, & Foster, 2002). However, in many coun- tries, policy makers face significant legal and political barriers to curbing unhealthy food marketing (Mello, Studdert, & Brennan, 2006). One approach public health advocates might apply to improve people’s eating habits is to prompt them to dissociate from un- healthy food and drink brands. Many people form strong bonds with brands (e.g., Fournier, 1998; Russell, Norman, & Heckler, 2004), to the degree that some brands become linked to their self-concept (e.g., Escalas & Bettman, 2003). For example, someone who identifies as Italian might identify with an Italian food brand that allows him or her to make authentic, traditional Italian food at home (Fournier, 1998). If a person has a strong connection with an un- healthy food brand (e.g., McDonald’s, Pepsi, M&M’s), that connection may perpetuate unhealthy eating. Thus, prompting identity-based dissociation (e.g., Berger & Rand, 2008) with beloved unhealthy food brands as a way to curb consumption of these foods is an intui- tively appealing strategy. However, we argue that this strategy can backfire, with dissociation from beloved food brands actually de- creasing people’s preferences for and consumption of vegetables, one of the healthiest food options. In this research, we demonstrate that when people dissociate from unhealthy but beloved brands, their interest in consuming veg- etables diminishes. This is because dissociating from these brands depletes self-regulatory resources (e.g., Muraven & Baumeister, 2000), which are required to make healthy food choices (Lisjak, Bonezzi, Kim, & Rucker, 2015; Vohs & Heatherton, 2000). We argue that veg- etables in particular require available self-regulatory resources because the preference for them is not innate and must be learned (e.g., Ahern, Caton, Blundell, & Hetherington, 2014; Ahern et al., 2013; Birch, 1999; Wertz & Wynn, 2014; Zeinstra, Koelen, Kok, & de Graaf, 2009). Thus, after people dissociate from beloved unhealthy food brands, we observe (1) reduced preference for vegetables (studies ☆ Acknowledgements: All authors contributed equally to this research. The authors thank Dante Pirouz and Beth Vallen for their thoughtful comments. This research was supported by internal grants from City University London. * Corresponding author. E-mail address: rktrump@loyola.edu (R.K. Trump). http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.appet.2015.05.025 0195-6663/© 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Appetite 92 (2015) 192–199 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Appetite journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/appet