Too busy to (lose) control? The influence of busyness and sense of power on consumers’ food responses

Busyness is prevalent for modern consumers, but there is limited understanding of how it affects consumers’ food-related responses. The current research addresses this knowledge gap by proposing that subjective busyness has a varying impact on consumers’ responses to indulgent food, depending on their sense of power. Through two studies, we find that powerless (vs. powerful) consumers respond more favorably to indulgent food when busy. Study 1 explores the proposed effect by measuring participants’ busyness and power. Study 2 uses a priming task to induce incidental busyness and shows that powerless (vs. powerful) consumers tend to engage in affective (vs. cognitive) information processing to make indulgent food choices. Our study offers valuable practical implications for public policymakers, food marketers, and consumers to respond to the prevailing busyness.