‘I deserve a treat!’: Justifications for indulgence undermine the translation of intentions into...
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British Journal of Social Psychology (2014), 53, 501–520
© 2013 The British Psychological Society
www.wileyonlinelibrary.com
‘I deserve a treat!’: Justifications for indulgenceundermine the translation of intentions into action
Cat Taylor*, Thomas L. Webb and Paschal SheeranUniversity of Sheffield, UK
The present research explores how justifications for indulgence influence the translation
of ‘good’ intentions into action. Three studies investigated the nature of such justifications
and their relation to indulgence. Study 1 identified six ways that people justify indulgence
to themselves – that they are deserving or curious, that the indulgence is an exception tothe norm or can be compensated for later, or that the tempting food is available or
irresistible. Study 2 showed that the use of justifications undermined participants’ strong
(but notweak) intentions to halve their consumption of a nominated high-fat food. Study 3
found that priming the use of justifications increased the amount of chocolate that
participants consumed in a subsequent, ostensibly unrelated, taste test. Again, justification
use had a greater effect on participants with strong intentions to limit indulgence. Taken
together, the studies suggest a new approach to understanding intention–behaviourdiscrepancies.
‘The only way to get rid of temptation is to yield to it. Resist it, and the soul grows sick with
longing for the things it has forbidden to itself.’ (Oscar Wilde, 2003, p. 61)
The need to impose self-control arises when the short- and long-term consequences of
actions are in conflict. Behaviours that offer short-term benefits (e.g., the pleasure ofconsuming chocolate), but long-term harm (e.g., poor health) are known as ‘vices’
(Wertenbroch, 1998). Conversely, behaviours that provide little short-term pleasure
(e.g., staying late in the office), but long-term advantage (e.g., progression up the
career ladder) are termed ‘virtues’. As the proverb suggests, however, ‘good’ intentions
(i.e., intentions to enact virtues and avoid vice) are not always translated into action
(‘the road to hell is paved with good intentions’). Reviews indicate that rates of
enactment of behavioural intentions are only about 50% (e.g., Sheeran, 2002) and a
substantial literature has developed on factors that might explain this intention–behaviour ‘gap’ (Sheeran, 2002; Webb & Sheeran, 2006). To date, this research has
focused on the properties of behavioural intention (e.g., stability, activation,
elaboration; for a review, see Sheeran, Milne, Webb, & Gollwitzer, 2005), or
contextual features (e.g., unexpected obstacles; DiBonaventura & Chapman, 2005)
that influence intention–behaviour relations. The idea is that, given the right intentions
and the right circumstances, people will exert self-control and successfully translate
their intentions into action. Very little research focuses on the alternative possibility –that there are instances when even well-intentioned people may knowingly and
*Correspondence should be addressed to Cat Taylor, Clinical Genetics, Sheffield Children’sHospital,Western Bank, Sheffield S102TT, UK (e-mail: [email protected]).
DOI:10.1111/bjso.12043
501
willingly give in to vice. In other words, although sometimes when people give in to
temptation they do so reluctantly, there may be other times when people do so
enthusiastically.
Accumulating evidence suggests that people often indulge themselves. Reviewing theliterature on self-regulatory failure, Baumeister and Heatherton (1996) concluded that
there is ‘significant evidence of deliberate, volitional participation by the individual in the
forbidden activity’ (p. 6). They argued that actions associated with indulgence (e.g.,
acquiring chocolate, putting it into one’s mouth, chewing, and swallowing it) are
voluntary behaviours to the extent that they could be avoided if, for example, one’s life
depended on it. Thus, in a sense, people cooperate in their indulgence.However, because
yielding to vice can be detrimental to the attainment of long-term goals, the thought of
doing so is likely to be associated with aversive feelings such as regret, guilt, or shame.Therefore, in this study we argue that, at the moment of acting, people are likely to be
motivated to resolve or eliminate the (anticipated) unpleasant state by justifying the
indulgence to themselves in some way (e.g., telling oneself that it is acceptable to
consume chocolate cake because it is a special occasion, or because one can ‘make up for
it’ in the gym tomorrow). Thus, the present research explores the idea that intention–behaviour discrepancies can arise, not merely because of weak intentions or adverse
circumstances but also because justifications permit indulgence. As such, we aim to
illustrate that the use of justifications plays an important role in permitting indulgenceamong people with good intentions.
Previous research on justifications, self-licensing, and self-forgiveness
A number of lines of research suggest that there are times when people justify
indulgence to themselves. For example, Wohl and Thompson (2011) found that self-
forgiveness reduced the likelihood that smokers would advance towards their quitting
goals. Fishbach and Dhar (2005) observed the tendency for perceived goal progress toact as a justification for subsequent goal-incongruent and indulgent behaviour.
Participants who perceived themselves as being closer to their weight-loss goal were
more likely to choose a tasty but fattening chocolate bar as a gift. Similarly, students
who perceived that they were closer to completing their academic tasks were more
likely to choose to socialize with friends – choices that are self-gratifying, but
inconsistent with the original focal goal. Similarly, Mukhopadhyay and Johar (2009)
showed that participants who had previously restrained themselves from shopping
were subsequently more likely to choose a vice option, but only when the initial act ofrestraint was made salient. The idea is that, when initial restraint is salient and
interpreted positively (in the sense of being goal consistent), subsequent indulgence is
seen to be justified.
People can also justify indulgence to themselves in other ways. Kivetz and Simonson
(2002) found that increasing the amount of effort required to participate in a loyalty
programme increased choice of vices as a reward for loyalty (e.g., a pampering massage)
over virtues (e.g., credit towards grocery purchases). The researchers concluded that the
increased effort required to participate helped to justify the indulgence and neutralize anyassociated guilt. De Witt Huberts, Evers, and De Ridder (2012) similarly found that
perceiving oneself as having invested greater effort (here, to pilotwords for a dyslexia test)
increased snack intake. The literature on self-gifting provides additional support for the
idea that invested effort can lead people to feel entitled to – or deserving of – some sort of
reward. Specifically, evidence suggests that people are more likely to self-gift when they
502 Cat Taylor et al.
experience success and attribute this success to their own efforts (e.g., Mick & Demoss,
1990; Mick & Faure, 1998). Negative experiences can also lead people to feel entitled to
consume indulgent or unhealthy foods on the grounds of mood repair. For example,
Wahlich, Gardner, and McGowen (2013) quoted one participant as saying ‘I just think tomyself that I deserve [an indulgent food after a bad day], it is not that I need it; it’s just that I
want it… I kind of think, well, I have had a rubbish day, it was not very fun at work, so I
deserve it’.
Research on moral self-licensing also suggests that previous (moral) acts can serve to
justify subsequent (immoral) behaviour (for a review, see Merritt, Effron, & Monin,
2010). The idea is that people are motivated to be seen as fair and rational (Chance &
Norton, 2009) and so use justifications to rationalize behaviours that might appear to
violate these standards. For example, there is evidence that disagreeing with obviouslysexist or racist statements ‘permits’ the subsequent expression of sexist attitudes
(Monin & Miller, 2001) and racially insensitive decisions (Merritt et al., 2012). In
another domain, participants who established themselves to be environmentally
friendly (e.g., by choosing energy-efficient light bulbs over regular bulbs) were more
likely to make morally dubious and selfish decisions such as take more money than they
have legitimately won (Mazar & Zhong, 2010). Such evidence relates to the idea that
positive behaviours can somehow compensate for more negative behaviours (Kakla-
manou, Jones, Webb, & Walker, in press; Kn€auper, Rabiau, Cohen, & Patriciu, 2004;Rabiau, Kn€auper, & Miquelon, 2006) and vice versa (Kronick & Kn€auper, 2010). Finally,there is evidence that committing to a virtuous act in a preceding choice, ‘licenses’ the
purchase of relative luxuries (Khan & Dhar, 2006). In sum, previous research points to
several ways in which people justify indulgence themselves; that it is licensed by
perceived goal progress, invested effort, negative affective experiences, moral, or pro-
social behaviours.
The present research
Despite accumulating research supporting a relationship between the use of justifications
and indulgence, two important questions remain unanswered. First, the range of
justifications that people use to rationalize indulgence is yet to be fully determined.
Studies to date have tended to focus on one or two predetermined types of justification in
isolation. Consequently, there is a need for an open-ended, exploratory approach to
identify the range of justifications that people use. Second, research typically assumes that
the self-indulgent acts that follow the use of justifications constitute a failure of self-regulation. However, research to date has not empirically measured whether or not the
self-indulgent behaviour runs counter to participant’s intentions. Only by so doing, can
the use of justifications be legitimately contextualized as a reason for intention–behaviourdiscrepancies.
The present research focuses on unhealthy eating to explore these issues. Unhealthy
foods (e.g., chocolate, pizza, and chips) represent temptations that are in conflict with
many people’s goals to have a healthy lifestyle or to watch their weight (Kroese, Evers, &
DeRidder, 2011). In contrast to other health behaviours (e.g., stopping smoking), eating isa matter of regulating consumption rather than complete abstinence. As such, the choice
to give in to (or to resist) temptation is one thatmust bemade over and over again, thereby
providing an interesting context within which to study self-regulation (e.g., Herman &
Polivy, 2004; Kroese et al., 2011).
Justifying indulgence 503
STUDY 1: EXPLORING THE NATURE OF JUSTIFICATIONS FOR
INDULGENCE
Study 1 aimed to identify the conceptual structure of justifications for indulgence by
asking participants to rate how often they used a series of justifications and then using
factor analysis to identify coherent subsets. In addition, Study 1 measured participant’s
consumption of unhealthy food and explored the relationship between self-reported useof justifications and consumption.
Method
Pilot research
Pilot researchwith two focus groups (ns = 10 and 6) served to identify a range of potentialjustifications for unhealthy eating. Participants were asked to recall instances from the
previousmonthwhen they hadmade a deliberate decision to eat something unhealthy and
then to report what they had thought to themselves just before doing so. Responses were
used to generate a series of short sentences describing each justification (e.g., ‘I’ll do some
exercise later to make up for it’). A further group of participants (n = 15) then rated how
frequently they used each type of justification on a 5-point scale ranging from ‘never’ to
‘always’. The pilot research resulted in a list of 54 items reflecting a range of justifications
that were used at least ‘sometimes’ (the midpoint or above of the scale) to permitindulgence. These items were then used to measure justification use in the main study.
Participants
An email to a distribution list at a large UK university requested participants for an online
survey on ‘Thepsychology of unhealthy food choice and consumption’. Four hundred and
fifty-eight people responded, of which 87 (19.00%) had a body mass index (BMI) lower
than18or>30, andwere therefore excluded from further analyses.1 Thus, the final sampleconsisted of 371 participants (n = 102 men), whose ages ranged from 19 to 70 years
(M = 34.92, SD = 10.99). BMI ranged from 18.00 to 29.80 (M = 23.14, SD = 2.75), and
78 participants (21%) reported that they were dieting to lose weight at the time of the
study.
Procedure
Participants were asked to rate how often they thought each of the 54 justificationsdeveloped in the pilot research to themselves ‘just before eating something unhealthy’
using a 5-point ‘never’ to ‘always’ scale. Statements appeared in a random order and
included justifications such as ‘It smells delicious’; ‘Once in a while is OK’; and ‘I can eat
what I want as long as I do some exercise’ (see Table 1 for the full list of justifications).
Indulgent food consumption was measured by asking participants to report how many
units of 12 foods (cakes, cheese, chocolate products, fast food, fried food, meat products,
nuts, pastries, pizza, potato crisps, and sweets) they had consumed during the previous
1 The impact of justifications for indulgence was investigated throughout the present research using samples of people whose BMIwas>18, but<30. BMIs outside of this range are more likely to be associated with eating psychopathology or disturbances suchas anorexia nervosa and binge-eating disorder (Dalle Grave et al., 2009; Karpowicz, Sk€ars€ater, & Nevonen, 2009).
504 Cat Taylor et al.
Table 1. Factor loadings for statements reflecting justifications for unhealthy food consumption
(Study 1)
Factor 1 Factor 2 Factor 3 Factor 4 Factor 5 Factor 6
The food has been made for me, so I
should eat it
0.78
It’ll go to waste if I don’t eat it 0.75
It’s been made for me 0.71
I always finish what’s on my plate 0.61
If it’s there, I’ll eat it 0.56
It’s just there in front of me 0.54
It’s really moreish 0.45 0.38
It’s too easy to finish the whole
packet
0.38
I’ve gone to all the cost and effort to
make it
0.37
It’s too easy to keep getting things to
snack on
0.31
I’ll do some exercise later 0.88
I’ll do some exercise tomake up for it 0.88
I can burn it off later 0.82
I can make up for it some other time 0.72
I can eat what I want as long as I do
some exercise
0.66
I’ll watch what I eat tomorrow 0.67 0.32
I canmake up for eating it bywatching
what I eat for the next few days
0.64
I’ll be good tomorrow 0.60 0.42
I shouldn’t worry; I don’t eat
unhealthy things all the time
0.75
I’m normally healthy so it does not
matter
0.73
I’m quite a healthy person, this will
not hurt
0.72
I don’t often eat unhealthily 0.66
Once in a while is OK 0.64
A little bit of what you fancy does you
good
0.51
You have to have all things in
moderation
0.50
You have to have some of the things
that you fancy
0.43 0.33
I’m stressed out 0.84
I’ve had a rubbish week, I deserve it 0.84
I’ve had a hard day, I need a treat 0.83
I need cheering up 0.82
Eating this will perk me up 0.75
I usually eat unhealthy food when I’m
feeling down
0.73
I deserve a treat 0.71
I need a treat 0.70
Continued
Justifying indulgence 505
7 days. A ‘unit’ was defined as a single packet of crisps, one standard chocolate bar, or a
single serving of a dessert (see Giner-Sorolla, 2001, for an equivalent measure). Finally,
total fat intakewasmeasured using the fat subscale of theDietary Instrument for Nutrition
Education (DINE; Roe, Strong, Whiteside, Neil, & Mant, 1994).
Results
Conceptual structure of justifications
Principal components analysis (PCA) was applied to responses to the 54 statements to
determine which justifications formed coherent subsets that were relatively independent
of one another and accounted for as much variance in the data as possible (Tabachnick &
Fidell, 1996). PCA was used rather than factor analysis because we wanted to explore
patterns in the data, but did not have theoretical ideas about the kinds of relationships that
might exist (Brown, 2009). We assumed that the components might be correlated and soused direct oblimin rotation. Six components with eigenvalues >1.0 were extracted that
together accounted for 61%of the variance in responses. The componentmatrix indicated
that rotation of the components was desirable to create a simple structure. Following
direct oblimin rotation, items typically loadedon a single factor (>0.30), although six items
Table 1. (Continued)
Factor 1 Factor 2 Factor 3 Factor 4 Factor 5 Factor 6
I’ve been good all day, I deserve a
treat now
0.30 0.53
It’s a special occasion, I deserve a
treat
0.53
I deserve to let go a bit 0.47
I saw it on television 0.93
I saw a poster advertising it 0.90
It looks gorgeous on the advert 0.82
I saw it in a shop 0.72
The packet looks good 0.65
My friends/relatives told me about it 0.64
It’s new and I want to try it 0.55
It’s on special offer 0.42
It looks tasty 0.80
It looks yummy 0.77
It looks really good 0.74
It looks so appealing 0.70
It smells delicious 0.67
It’s too good to say ‘no’ to 0.57
It’s too tempting 0.47
Nobody could resist something this
good
0.32 0.43
I’ll have a starter or pudding, not both 0.30
Eigenvalue 18.99 5.05 3.36 2.01 1.94 1.80
Variance explained (%) 34.62 9.24 6.73 3.72 3.59 3.23
Note. Variables are ordered by size of loading to facilitate interpretation. Loadings < 0.30 are not
reported.
506 Cat Taylor et al.
had small cross-loadings (0.30–0.42). Table 1 presents the items and their loadings on
respective components.
Factor 1 had loadings from justifications relating to the availability of unhealthy food
andwas labelled availability (e.g., ‘If it’s there, I’ll eat it’). Justifications reflecting the ideathat the negative consequences of unhealthy food can be made up for by compensatory
acts loaded on Factor 2, which was labelled compensatory behaviours (e.g., ‘I can make
up for eating this by doing some exercise later’). Factor 3 was labelled exceptions to the
norm due to high loadings from justifications concerning the atypicality of the current
consumption of unhealthy food (e.g., ‘Once in a while is OK’). Factor 4 was labelled
deservingness due to high loadings from justifications that reflected the idea that
unhealthy food was a reward or treat (e.g., ‘I’ve had a hard day, I deserve a treat’).
Justifications based on external, particularly media, influences loaded on Factor 5, whichwas labelled curiosity (e.g., ‘It looks gorgeous on the advert’). Finally, statements
reflecting the importance of the hedonic aspects of unhealthy food such as taste, smell,
and appearance loaded on Factor 6, which was labelled irresistibility (e.g., ‘It looks so
appealing’). Each factor proved internally consistent: availability (a = 0.87); compensa-
tory behaviours (a = 0.91); exceptions to the norm (a = 0.72); deservingness (a = 0.92);
curiosity (a = 0.86); and irresistibility (a = 0.74).
Relationship between the use of justifications and consumption
Table 2 shows the means, standard deviations, and correlations between the six types of
justification and measures of consumption. Participants reported using justifications
relatively frequently (M = 2.76, SD = 0.90) before eating something unhealthy.
However, some types of justifications were used more frequently than others;
justifications based on the irresistible nature of unhealthy food (M = 4.31, SD = 2.29)
were used most frequently, whereas justifications based on curiosity (M = 1.62,
SD = 0.59) were used least frequently. Use of the different forms of justification was
Table 2. Means, standard deviations, and correlations between types of justification and measures of
consumption (Study 1)
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
1. Availability 1.00
2. Compensatory
behaviours
0.41* 1.00
3. Exceptions to the
norm
0.29* 0.47* 1.00
4. Deservingness 0.63* 0.56* 0.31* 1.00
5. Curiosity 0.68* 0.36* 0.27* 0.62* 1.00
6. Irresistibility 0.63* 0.29* 0.28* 0.48* 0.58* 1.00
7. Total justification
use
0.79* 0.55* 0.45* 0.80* 0.77* 0.86* 1.00
8. Total fat 0.17* �0.02 0.09 0.08 0.18* 0.15* 0.73* 1.00
9. Unhealthy foods 0.20* 0.10 0.04 0.21* 0.24* 0.20* 0.23* �0.02 1.00
M 2.33 2.08 3.30 2.47 1.62 4.31 2.76 9.90 23.30
SD 0.87 0.96 1.29 0.88 0.59 2.29 0.90 2.66 15.75
Note. *p < .001.
Justifying indulgence 507
moderately correlated with one another (0.28 < rs < 0.68, df = 369), which suggests
that participants who used one type of justification were also likely to use other types.
Bivariate correlations also revealed significant positive relationships between the six
justifications and the measures of consumption. The use of justifications based onavailability, curiosity, and the irresistibility of food was positively correlated (r > 0.15,
df = 369) with total fat intake. All justifications except for compensatory behaviours and
exceptions to the norm correlated with the measure of unhealthy food consumption (all
rs > 0.20, df = 363). Thus, the correlations suggest that the use of justifications for
unhealthy eating tends to be associated with greater intake of unhealthy foods.
Discussion
Study 1 provided an initial insight into the different ways that people justify unhealthy
food choices to themselves. Six broad classes of justificationwere derived, some of which
are consistent with justifications that have been previously identified by the literature
(e.g., the intention to compensate for the indulgence at a later time and that unhealthy
food is, at times, deserved). However, Study 1 revealed a number of previously
unidentified justifications that people use to rationalize indulgence, including theavailability of unhealthy food, the indulgence being an exception to the norm, that
curiosity compels indulgence, and that the food is too appealing to resist. Study 1 also
found relationships between the use of (some types of) justifications and consumption of
unhealthy food. In particular, justifications reflecting compensatory behaviours were
associated with total fat intake, justifications based on deservingness were related to
unhealthy food consumption, and the use of justifications relating to the availability of
unhealthy food, curiosity, and the irresistible nature of some foods was associated with
bothmeasures of consumption. These findings suggest that the likelihood of indulgence isincreased if people are able to justify that indulgence to themselves in some way, such as
those identified here.
STUDY2:TESTINGTHEPREDICTIVEVALIDITYOF JUSTIFICATIONS
IN A LONGITUDINAL DESIGN
Study2aimedtoextendStudy1 intwokeyways.First, Study1didnotmeasureparticipants’
intentions to reduce their consumption of unhealthy foods, but rather assumed that
consumption of these foods reflected a failure of self-regulation. Study 2, therefore,
measured the strength of participants’ intentions to reduce their intake of a nominated
unhealthy snack food and investigated whether or not the use of justifications wouldundermine the realization of those intentions. Second, Study 2 employed a longitudinal
rather than a cross-sectional design, and measured participants’ consumption at baseline
andagain4 weeks later.Theuseof justifications for indulgenceatbaselinewasexpected to
be related to the consumption of nominated unhealthy snack foods at follow-up, but only
for participants with strong intentions to halve their consumption of such foods.
Method
Participants
Twohundred and forty-three staff and undergraduate students (n = 48men) completed a
baseline questionnaire on unhealthy snacking. Two hundred and six (84.77%) of the
508 Cat Taylor et al.
original sample provided follow-up data. Forty-six participants (22.33%) with BMIs
outside of the required range of >18 and <30were excluded from further analysis; as were
61 participants (29.61%) with missing data. Therefore, the final sample consisted of 99
participants (n = 28 men), whose ages ranged between 18 and 73 years (M = 28.52,SD = 11.76), and BMI ranged between 18.03 and 29.76 (M = 22.58, SD = 2.66).
Procedure
Participants were recruited via an email sent to a University distribution list. Following
measures of gender, weight, height, and age, participants were asked to nominate one
unhealthy snack that they eat toomuch of and to record howmany units of this snack they
eat in a typical week. Units were defined as ‘a single standard chocolate bar, standardpacket of crisps, or a slice of cake’ to aid interpretation. Next, participants indicated how
often they used each of the 54 justifications (taken from Study 1) just before eating their
nominated unhealthy snack on a 5-point, ‘never’ to ‘always’ scale. Responses to the 54
statements were combined into subscales in accordance with Study 1. The justifications
showed internal consistency as a total scale (a = 0.95), and as individual scales:
availability (a = 0.77), compensatory behaviours (a = 0.76), exceptions to the norm
(a = 0.76), deservingness (a = 0.81), curiosity (a = 0.77), and irresistibility (a = 0.76).
Finally, three items measured the strength of participants’ intentions to halve theirconsumption of their nominated unhealthy snack for 1 month (e.g., ‘I intend to halve my
consumption of my nominated unhealthy food’; ‘I expect to halvemy consumption of my
nominated unhealthy food’ and ‘I will halve my consumption of my nominated unhealthy
food’, using a 7-point scale; ‘strongly disagree’ to ‘strongly agree’, a = 0.76).
Follow-up Questionnaire
Four weeks later participants completed a follow-up questionnaire that measured howmany units of the nominated unhealthy snack food had been consumed over the previous
7 days.
Results
Descriptive statisticsParticipants reported using justifications relatively frequently (M = 2.41, SD = 0.59)
during the previous week to justify consumption of their nominated unhealthy snack.
Participants had moderately strong intentions to halve their consumption of their
nominated snack food (M = 4.39, SD = 1.74). Participants consumed significantly fewer
units of their nominated unhealthy snacks at follow-up (M = 2.55, SD = 1.94) than at
baseline (M = 3.49, SD = 2.89), t(98) = 2.76, p < .05.
Bivariate correlations
Significant positive correlations were found between all six types of justifications for
indulgence (0.66 < r < 0.94, df = 97; see Table 3). Therefore, greater use of one
type of justification was also associated with greater use of the other types of
justifications. The use of justifications for indulgence was positively correlated with
consumption of nominated unhealthy snack food at follow-up, r(97) = 0.27,
Justifying indulgence 509
p = .001. Therefore, greater reported use of justifications for indulgence at baseline
was associated with a greater consumption of the nominated unhealthy snack
4 weeks later (see Table 3).
Does the use of justifications for indulgence undermine intentions to halve consumption
of nominated unhealthy snacks?
To investigate the hypothesis that the use of justifications undermines participants’intentions to halve their consumption of unhealthy snack foods, a hierarchical
regression analysis was conducted. Consumption of the nominated unhealthy snack
food at follow-up was the dependent variable. Baseline consumption, the strength of
intentions to halve consumption, and the use of justifications (measured at baseline)
were entered at Step 1. The interaction between intention strength and the use of
justifications was entered at Step 2. At Step 1, the model was not significant, F(3,
95) = 1.65, ns, and accounted for 6.10% of the variance in consumption at follow-up
consumption. Baseline consumption and intention strength were not significantpredictors; b = �0.01, t(98) = �0.03, ns, and b = �0.15, t(98) = �1.43, ns, respec-
tively. However, the use of justifications significantly predicted snack food consump-
tion at follow-up, b = 0.21, t(98) = 2.01, p < .05. At Step 2, the model as a whole was
significant, F(4, 94) = 3.43, p < .01, and accounted for 12.70% of the variance in
consumption at follow-up. The interaction between intention strength and the use of
justifications accounted for an additional 6.60% of the variance in consumption at
follow-up (ΔR2 = 0.08, ΔF = 8.39, b = 0.30, t(98) = 2.90, p < .01).
Simple slopes revealed that the effect of justifications on consumption at follow-upincreased in line with the strength of participants’ intentions to halve their
consumption of their nominated unhealthy snack food (see Figure 1). Specifically,
Table 3. Means, standard deviations, and correlations between types of justification and measures of
consumption (Study 2)
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
1. Availability 1.00
2. Compensatory
behaviours
0.83** 1.00
3. Exceptions to
the norm
0.81** 0.68** 1.00
4. Deservingness 0.76** 0.83** 0.79** 1.00
5. Curiosity 0.66** 0.84** 0.77** 0.86** 1.00
6. Irresistibility 0.82** 0.71** 0.85** 0.83** 0.79** 1.00
7. Total
justification
use
0.86** 0.87** 0.90** 0.94** 0.91** 0.92** 1.00
8. Baseline
consumption
0.11 0.13 0.10 0.19* 0.11 0.14 0.15 1.00
9. Follow-up
consumption
0.18 0.16 0.13 0.16 0.14 0.16 0.27** 0.27** 1.00
M 2.21 2.55 2.21 2.56 2.63 2.20 2.41 4.59 3.40
SD 0.65 0.67 0.63 0.64 0.69 0.66 0.59 4.83 2.79
Note. *p < .05; **p < .001.
510 Cat Taylor et al.
using justifications had a significant effect on consumption of nominated unhealthy
snacks at follow-up among participants with strong intentions to reduce consumption,
b = 0.30, p < .01. In contrast, the effect of using justifications on consumption was not
significant among participants with weak intentions to reduce consumption,
b = �0.07, ns. Thus, participants with strong intentions to halve their consumption
of a nominated unhealthy snack were less likely to achieve this goal when they used
justifications.
Discussion
Study 2 tested whether the interaction between the use of justifications (measured at
baseline) and the strength of intentions (to reduce consumption) predicted consumption
of nominated unhealthy snacks at follow-up. In support of our hypotheses, the use of
justifications on subsequent indulgence was only significant among participants withstrong intentions to halve nominated snack consumption. In contrast, the use of
justifications did not influence consumption of nominated snacks among participants
withweak intentions. This finding suggests that justification usemoderates the intention–behaviour relation; themore people justified indulgence, themore snacks they consumed
despite holding strong intentions to avoid doing so.
STUDY 3: DOES PRIMING THE USE OF JUSTIFICATIONS PROMOTE
INDULGENCE?
Studies 1 and 2 suggest that the use of justifications might help to explain instances when
people appear to deliberately fail at self-regulation. However, it is not clear whethergreater use of justifications promotes greater indulgence (as hypothesized) or whether
greater indulgence promotes greater use of justifications as a post-hoc rationalization for
the indulgent act. To rule out the latter possibility, Study 3 manipulated justification use
via a priming task and assessed the impact of thismanipulation on chocolate consumption
in a subsequent taste test. In addition, Study 3 aimed to replicate the findings of Study 2 by
investigating whether the impact of justification use on indulgence is influenced by the
strength of participants’ intentions to reduce their intake. We predicted that, despite
intending to limit their intake of high-fat foods, participants who were primed to justify
1
1.5
2
2.5
3
3.5
4
4.5
5
Low justification use High justification use
Con
sum
ptio
n of
nom
inat
ed sn
ack
food
Weak intentions
Strong intentions
Figure 1. The effect of strength of intentions to limit self-indulgence on consumption of nominated
snack food as a function of justification use (Study 2).
Justifying indulgence 511
indulgence would consume significantly more chocolate compared with participants
exposed to a neutral prime.
Method
Participants
Eighty-seven female undergraduate students were recruited for a study on product and
taste perception. Four (4.60%) participants were excluded from further analyses due to
having BMIs <18 or >30. Therefore, the final sample consisted of 83 females, whose ages
ranged between 18 and 24 years (M = 19.04, SD = 1.63) and BMI ranged between 18.25and 29.43 (M = 21.55, SD = 2.30). Participants were randomly allocated to experimental
(prime, n = 41) or control (no-prime, n = 42) conditions.
Procedure
Participants were informed that they would take part in two unrelated studies – a readingtask and a tasting task. Participants were seated at a desk with the papers for the
experiment. The first set of papers consisted of an information sheet, consent form, and anactivity sheet. The second set of papers pertained to a product and taste perception task. A
blindfoldwas placed on top of this booklet on the basis thatwewere ostensibly interested
in the perception of colour on taste. In addition to the papers, there were also six plastic
containers each containing 200 g of M&M’s chocolates (each tub contained a different
colour of M&M’s) and a 600-ml jug of water. To reinforce the cover story, the
experimenter appeared to ‘check the records’ to determine whether or not the
participantwas in the blindfold condition. In fact, all participantswere told that theywere
in the no-blindfold condition.
Manipulation of justification use
Prior to the taste perception task, all participants completed a reading task on relationship
dilemmas. The taskwas presented on an A3 sheet of paper with a typed passage at the top
and a large empty speech bubble below. To prime justifications for indulgence, the
experimental passage described a university student’s decision to holiday with friends
rather than with her boyfriend. Participants were asked to imagine themselves in thestudent’s position and towrite down asmany reasons as they could think of to justify their
decision to their boyfriend. The participant then ranked their justifications in the order in
which they believed that they should be used. Three example justificationswere provided
to get participants started; ‘I deserve a treat’, ‘I can make up for it some other time’, and
‘Just this once won’t hurt’. Examples of the justifications that participants generated
include: ‘I’ll make it up to [my boyfriend]’, ‘I deserve some time with my friends after all
our hard work’, and ‘After university I won’t see my friends as much’. These justifications
are consistent with the themes of compensatory behaviours, deservingness, and theavailability of an opportunity to self-indulge, respectively.
Participants in the control condition received an equivalent passage that also involved
a scenario in which a student was deciding whether or not to holiday with friends before
their final year at university. However, participants were simply asked to list and rank
possible holiday destinations. Thus, participants in the control condition did not generate
justifications.
512 Cat Taylor et al.
Product taste test
Next, participants completed an ostensibly unrelated taste perception task. Participants
were given a booklet that began with a modified version of the affect–arousal scale(Salovey & Birnbaum, 1989). The stem ‘Please tick the appropriate box to indicate howyou feel at the present moment’ was followed by six 7-point semantic differential scales
divided into mood valence: ‘bad – good’, ‘sad – happy’, and ‘displeased – pleased’
(Cronbach’s a = 0.72); andmood arousal: ‘calm – excited’, ‘tired – energetic’, and ‘sedate– aroused’ (Cronbach’s a = 0.73). This was followed by two items measuring hunger and
thirst that participants also responded to on a 7-point scale (‘not at all thirsty’ to ‘very
thirsty’ and ‘not at all hungry’ to ‘very hungry’).
The next part of the booklet asked participants to put on food hygiene gloves and to
begin the taste test bywriting down the colour of theM&M that theywere tasting and thento rate each colour on scales reflecting tastiness, naturalness, healthiness, sweetness, and
product look (on a 7-point ‘not a lot’ to ‘very much’ scale, adapted fromHofmann, Rauch,
& Gawronski, 2007). Participants were told that they were free to eat as many M&M’s as
they liked and that water had been provided should they need it. Participants’
consumption of chocolate and water was later determined by subtracting the amount
remaining from the 200 g pre-consumption weight of M&M’s in each tub and the 600 ml
starting volume of water, respectively. Participants also completed the 10-item restraint
subscale of the Dutch Eating Behaviour questionnaire (a = 0.84, van Strien, Herman,Engels, Larsen, & van Leeuwe, 2007) and the 13-item short form of the Self-Control Scale
(a = 0.76, Tangney, Baumeister, & Boone, 2004). Participants were divided into those
withweak intentions versus strong intentions on the basis of their commitment to limiting
their intake of things that are bad for them (i.e., those who scored below vs. above the
midpoint [4] on this item of the self-control scale were deemed to hold weak vs. strong
intentions, respectively).
Funnel debriefing
Participants were debriefed using the funnel debriefing procedure developed by
Chartrand and Bargh (1996). Participants were asked to write down what they thought
the purpose of the experiment had been and whether they thought that any of the tasks
had been related. Inspection of thewritten answers revealed that none of the participants
was aware of the true purpose of the experiment nor did they believe that the reading task
and subsequent taste test were related in any way.
Results
Randomization check
A 2 (condition: prime vs. no-prime) 9 2 (intention: strong vs. weak) multivariate analysis
of variance was performed to ensure that the conditions did not differ in time since last
meal, age, weight, height, BMI, mood valence, mood arousal, self-reported thirst, hunger,liking forM&M’s,water consumptionduring the experiment (ml), or dietary restraint. The
multivariate tests for condition, intention strength, and their interaction were all
non-significant, Fs(12, 59) = 1.51, 1.11, and 0.86, respectively. All univariate tests were
also non-significant, Fs < 1.08, <1.36, and <3.30, respectively.
Justifying indulgence 513
Chocolate consumption
A 2 (condition: prime vs. no-prime) 9 2 (intention: strong vs. weak) analysis of variance
was conductedwithweight ofM&M’s consumed (g) as the dependent variable. The effect
of condition on consumption of M&M’s was non-significant, F(1, 79) = 0.63, ns,
g² = 0.01. Participants in the prime condition consumed an average of 28.90 g of M&M’s
(SE = 3.46). In comparison, participants in the no-prime condition consumed an average
of 24.90 g of M&M’s (SE = 3.64) during the taste test. The effect of intention strength on
consumption of M&M’s was also non-significant, F(1, 79) = 0.14, ns, g² = 0.01.Participants in the strong intention condition consumed an average of 25.93 g of
M&M’s (SE = 3.01) relative to an average of 27.83 g (SE = 4.02) in the weak intention
condition. As predicted, however, there was a significant interaction between
condition and intention strength on consumption of M&M’s, F(1, 79) = 6.63,
p < .01, g² = 0.08.
Simple main effects (see Figure 2) revealed that priming the use of justifications had a
significant impact on consumption of M&M’s only among participants with strong
intentions to limit their intake of bad things. Participants who had strong intentions andwere also primed to justify self-indulgence consumed significantly more M&M’s
(Ms = 35.38, SE = 4.45) than participants who had strong intentions, but were not
primed to justify self-indulgence (M = 17.48, SE = 4.05), F(1, 51) = 7.44, p < .001.
Priming justification use did not have a significant influence on consumption of M&M’s
among participants with weak intentions to limit their intake of bad things (Ms = 23.35
and 32.31, for prime vs. no-prime conditions, respectively, SEs = 5.29 and 6.05), F(1,
28) = 1.39, ns.
Discussion
The findings of Study 3 demonstrate that priming the use of justifications in one domain
influences participants’ indulgence in another unrelated domain (that of eating). The
implication is that justification use is causally related to indulgence, rather than simply
being a post-hoc rationalization or ‘excuse’ for the counter-intentional act. The findings
25
30
35
40
0
5
10
15
20
Strong inten onsWeak inten ons
Cons
umpt
ion
of M
&M
s (g
)
No Prime
Prime
Figure 2. The effect of priming justification use on consumption of M&M’s (g) as a function of the
strength of participants’ intentions to limit indulgence (Study 3).
514 Cat Taylor et al.
suggest that priming the use of justifications to give into temptation undermines strong
intentions to limit the intake of things that are bad. As such, the use of justifications for
indulgence appears to be especially problematic for people who are trying to limit
indulgence.Our explanation of this effect is that the priming procedure increased the accessibility
of self-serving reasons for acting that were then used by respective participants to
rationalize their consumption of chocolate. However, we acknowledge that, similar to
most priming studies (for a review, see Bargh, 2006), the accessibility of the primed
construct (here, justifications)was not directlymeasured here. It is therefore possible that
other mechanisms might have accounted for the effect of our manipulation on
indulgence. Our findings rule out mood (there were no differences in mood valence or
arousal following exposure to the different scenarios) and De Witt Huberts et al. (2012)demonstrate that self-licensing on the basis of perceived effort does not lead to a decline in
self-control capacity. However, future researchmight usefully consider whether thinking
about a scenario in which the target was vacationing with friends rather than with her
boyfriendmight deplete self-regulatory resources to a greater extent than thinking about a
target who was simply vacationing.
GENERAL DISCUSSION
The present research investigated the role of justifications for indulgence in explaining
the gap between intentions and action. Unhealthy eating provided a context for exploring
the nature of justifications for indulgence and the relationship between justification use
and counter-intentional behaviour. Study 1 identified six different types of justifications
that people use to rationalize their consumption of unhealthy foods; justifications based
on (1) the availability of unhealthy food, (2) intentions to compensate for the indulgenceat a later time, (3) the indulgence being an exception to the norm, (4) that unhealthy food
is deserved, (5) that curiosity compels indulgence, and (6) that the food is irresistible.
Study 1 also showed that greater use of justifications was associatedwith increased intake
of unhealthy foods.
Study 2 confirmed a relationship between justification use and indulgence and showed
that the use of justifications was especially problematic for participants with strong (vs.
weak) intentions to reduce consumption of snack foods. This finding suggests that
justification use moderates the intention–behaviour relation; the more people justifiedindulgence, the more snacks they consumed despite holding strong intentions to avoid
doing so. Finally, Study 3 showed that justifications are not merely post-hoc rationaliza-
tions or excuses. Priming justification use (via an ostensibly unrelated task on relationship
dilemmas) engendered greater consumption of chocolate in a subsequent taste test
compared with a neutral-prime condition. Thus, the availability of justifications at the
moment of indulgence has an important influence on whether or not counter-intentional
behaviour ensues. Study 3 also replicated the findings of Study 2by showing that the use of
justifications undermines intentions – justification use led to more marked indulgenceamong participantswith strong (vs. weak) intentions to limit indulgence. Taken together,
our findings provide an insight into the range of justifications used for indulgence and
support the idea that justification use plays an important role in promoting indulgence
and, thus, undermining the translation of good intentions into action.
The present findings add to a growing literature that demonstrates a link between the
use of justifications and the tendency to self-indulge. The present findings are, however,
Justifying indulgence 515
the first to manipulate the use of justifications and examine the effects on counter-
intentional indulgence. Whereas existing studies that examine the processes that occur
between forming an intention and subsequent goal striving have focused on external
threats to intention realization such as unexpected situations (DiBonaventura &Chapman, 2005; Martijn et al., 2008) or social recognition (Gollwitzer, Sheeran,
Michalski, & Seifert, 2009), the present studies indicate that threats to intention
realization can originate within the person, in the form of justifications for indulgence.
Our findings provide insight into a particular type of self-talk (i.e., giving oneself reasons to
indulge) that can jeopardize the effective translation of intentions into action. Finally, the
present line of studies may also offer a valuable (but not mutually exclusive) alternative to
research that construes self-regulatory failure in terms of diminished self-control
resources (for a review, see Baumeister, Vohs, & Tice, 2007). Although additionalresearch is needed to rule out the possibility that the specificmanipulation of justification
use employed in Study 3 led to self-regulatory depletion,manipulations of perceived effort
have been shownnot to influencedepletion (DeWittHuberts et al., 2012). Therefore, our
findings indicate that failures to enact intentions can also accrue from justifications for
indulgence that allow theperson to relinquish self-control, or at least strive less intensively
for the goal.
Someof the justifications highlighted by the present research are similar to those found
previously. The idea that indulgence is, at times, deserved is consistentwith evidence thatpeople justify indulgence on the grounds of effort and entitlement (e.g., DeWitt Huberts
et al., 2012; Kivetz & Simonson, 2002; Wahlich et al., 2013), perceived goal progress
(e.g., Fishbach & Dhar, 2005), and previous restraint or good behaviour (e.g.,
Mukhopadhyay & Johar, 2009). Our findings also support research on compensatory
beliefs (e.g., Kaklamanou et al., in press; Kn€auper et al., 2004; Rabiau et al., 2006) by
showing that individuals believe that the negative consequences of their indulgence can
be compensated for, or neutralized, at a later point in time. In addition, our findings
suggest that people use curiosity to justify indulgence. For example, consistent withprevious research (e.g., Harris, Bargh, & Brownell, 2009), participants reported justifying
their consumption of unhealthy foods on the basis that they had ‘seen it on television’ and
so wanted to find out what the product was like.
Some of the justifications reported by participants in the present research have
received less research attention, however. For example, in the present research,
indulgence was, at times, rationalized as something that was ‘out of the ordinary’ or an
‘exception’ to normal eating habits. Wahlich et al. (2013) recently reported a similar
effect on young women’s use of nutrition labels, noting that ‘during special occasions,celebrations such as holidays, anniversaries, and birthdays, or simply during theweekend
… food was seen as a ‘treat’ and participants attributed less importance to monitoring
nutritional content’. The implicationhere is that, if someone is able to construe an event as
being unusual, then good intentions may be set aside. As such, future research might
usefully determine the number and type(s) of events that people label as unusual, and the
extent to which this behaviour is motivated by the desire to indulge. In addition, the
present research suggests that the mere availability of unhealthy food and its irresistibility
was enough for participants to licence their consumption. This finding speaks to the ideaof the ‘toxic environment’ (Wadden, Brownell, & Foster, 2002) with palatable but
unhealthy foods tending to be cheaper than their healthier counterparts. Justifications
based on the availability of food and its irresistibility support the notion that, rather than
being passive recipients of food saturated environments or victims of inaccurate
estimations of their capacity to control internal desires (e.g., Nordgren, van Harreveld, &
516 Cat Taylor et al.
van der Pligt, 2009), people may actively seek out tempting foods, safe in the knowledge
that they can justify the indulgence to themselves.
The identification of new ways in which people justify indulgence can provide new
targets for dietary interventions – participants might be encouraged to think carefullybefore characterizing eating occasions as unusual or exceptional and instead to consider
how different occasions contribute to overall food intake. Similarly, it may be valuable for
people to learn that the availability of tasty foodstuffs can in itself promote indulgence –because justifications for consumption become activated. Study 3 showed that once
justifications were activated (even in an ostensibly unrelated domain), indulgence was
likely to ensue. In addition, future research might profitably be directed at breaking the
links between situational cues and justifications so that exceptional circumstances or
tempting stimuli no longer activate unwanted justifications for indulgence. It would alsobe interesting to investigate the contexts that promote versus inhibit justification use. For
example, internal states such as ego depletion (Baumeister et al., 2007) or feeling
deprived (Kavanagh, Andrade, & May, 2005) may promote justification use, whereas
heightened self-focus (Macrae, Bodenhausen, & Milne, 1998) or contexts that promote
personal responsibility may inhibit justification use.
Limitations and future directionsTwo limitations of the present research warrant consideration, especially with respect to
the design of future research in this area. First, Studies 1 and 2 used self-report measures
of unhealthy food consumption that may be prone to recall, self-presentational, or social
desirability biases. Even though we used a well-validated measure of fat consumption in
Study 1 (the DINE; Roe et al., 1994), and Study 3 found a similar impact of justification
use on objectively measured consumption, further tests using non-reactive measures of
eating behaviour would be desirable. Second, the present research did not explicitly
consider the mechanisms underlying the use of justifications. Previous research hasobserved a tendency for people to experience negative psychological effects following
indulgence. For example, dieters who fail to stick to their diets experience dysphoria
(Roncolato & Huon, 1998), feelings of frustration and defeat (Sarwer & Wadden, 1999),
impaired self-esteem (Norcross, Ratzin, & Payne, 1989), and self-hatred (Kassirer &
Angell, 1998). The literature on cognitive dissonance suggests that such feelings are
important determinants of reparative efforts (Davis & Jones, 1960; Snyder & Higgins,
1988). It would therefore be valuable if future studies could determine which affective
states promote justification use and investigate the consequences of justification use onsubsequent affect. Finally, research would profit from determining whether justifications
are also used following indulgence. It may be that an initial act of indulgence that has
been permitted by the use of justifications engenders negative affect and, thus, further
justification use by way of repairing unpleasant emotions. Further research into when
and why justifications are used will improve our understanding of the intention–behaviour gap and, consequently, should improve interventions designed to bridge that
gap.
Acknowledgement
This research was supported by an ESRC award to the first author.
Justifying indulgence 517
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Received 16 June 2011; revised version received 8 May 2013
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