Representational shifts: Increasing motivation for bottled water through simulation-enhancing advertisements

doi:10.21203/rs.3.rs-1957259/v1

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Research Article

Representational shifts: Increasing motivation for bottled water through simulation-enhancing advertisements

https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-1957259/v1

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Journal Publication

published 09 Nov, 2023

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Background

Despite its numerous health benefits, consumers’ daily water consumption is below the recommend level while soft drink consumption remains high. Previous research has shown that the degree to which drinks are cognitively represented of in terms of consuming and enjoying them (i.e., through simulations of consumption and reward) predicts desire and intake. Here, we examined whether simulation-enhancing advertisements framing water in terms of consumption and reward changes cognitive representations and increases motivation for a fictitious bottled water.

Methods

In three pre-registered online experiments (N_exp1 = 984; N_exp2= 786; N_exp3 = 907), UK participants viewed three advertisements that highlighted either the rewarding consumption experience of water (e.g., “refresh all your senses with this smooth, cool water”), health consequences of drinking water (e.g., “this water takes care of your health”), or control advertisements. We assessed cognitive representations of the bottled water with a Feature Listing task, and we coded the words used as consumption and reward features or positive long-term health consequences features. We assessed motivation by measuring attractiveness of the water (only in Exp. 1), desire to drink it, and willingness to pay for it (WTP).

Results

In line with our hypotheses, participants represented the bottled water more in terms of consumption and reward simulation features after viewing simulation-enhancing advertisements, and more in terms of long-term positive health consequences features after viewing health-focused advertisements. There was no direct effect of advertisement condition on motivation. However, significant indirect effects showed that simulation-enhancing advertisements increased desire and WTP through the proportion of consumption and reward features, whereas health-focused advertisements increased motivation through an increase in the proportion of positive long-term health consequences features. The effect through consumption and reward was stronger.

Conclusions

These findings are in line with research suggesting that experiencing immediate reward from drinking water underlies intake. Public health interventions should emphasize enjoyment, rather than long-term health benefits.

water consumption

reward

Method

Participants

Power analyses suggested a minimum sample size of N = 975 (see the SOM for more details). Participants were invited through the online platform Prolific (26) to participate if they 1) were living in the UK, 2) were between 18 and 70 years old, and 3) had not participated in any of our previous studies of SSBs and water. We collected data from N = 989 participants. Based on our pre-registered exclusion criteria, we excluded participants who took more than four times the median duration to complete the study (n = 5). The final sample consisted of N = 984 participants of which 65.0% identified as female, 33.6% as male, and 0.01% as nonbinary or other. The mean age was 37.4 (SD = 13.2) years.

Experimental design and stimuli

The experiment had a between-subjects design with random assignment to one of three advertisement conditions: simulation-enhancing, health-focused, or control. In the simulation-enhancing and health-focused condition, participants viewed three advertisements of a bottled water of a fictitious brand with slogans either referencing consumption and reward (i.e., “Invigorate your body with a cool splash of Aquaviva”), or referencing health (i.e., “Aquaviva takes care of your health”). In the control condition, participants viewed three advertisements for a fictitious insurance company. Within each condition, the order in which the three advertisements were presented was randomized (see Figure 1).

Participants were asked to “Please take a close look at this advertisement. Try to immerse yourself in the situation shown in the ad, really imagine being there. Then, imagine interacting with the product in the situation shown as best as you can, and with as much detail as possible.” Then, the following instructions were customized for each advertisement condition. Participants in the simulation-enhancing condition were asked to “Imagine that you are in this situation, and you are holding this drink in your hand. What would it feel like to drink it? How would the drink taste and feel in your mouth? How would your body feel after drinking it?” Participants in the health-focused condition were asked to “Imagine how your life would be affected if you had this drink. How would drinking this drink affect your health? How would the drink affect your body in the long-term? How would consuming this drink influence your health goals?” Participants in the control condition were asked to “Imagine that you are in this situation, and you own a product of this insurance company. What would it feel like to own this insurance? What sensations would you feel if you owned this insurance? How would having this insurance feel in your day-to-day life?” Each advertisement was shown to participants for 30 seconds.

Procedure and measures

Participants were first asked to rate their current thirst level (M = 47.38, SD = 25.38) on a 0–100 Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) with the anchors 0 = not at all, 50 = somewhat, 100 = definitely. They were then presented with the advertisements and were instructed according to the condition they were assigned to.

After viewing the advertisements, participants were shown the bottled water presented in the ads and were asked to describe the bottled water: “How would you describe this drink now? Please try to fill all 5 boxes. Type in what comes to mind spontaneously” (Feature Listing task).

After this task, participants were asked to rate the bottled water on four measures responding on a 0-100 VAS with the anchors 0 = not at all, 50 = somewhat, 100 = very/completely. They were first asked to rate anticipated reward for the bottled water: “To what extent do you agree with the following statements? a) This drink would taste very nice, b) This drink would be refreshing, c) This drink would make me feel energised, d) I would really enjoy drinking this drink.” Cronbach’s alpha of these items was ⍺ = 0.87, so they were combined into mean scores. Then, participants rated the bottled water on attractiveness: “How attractive do you find this drink?” and desire: “How much they would you like to drink this drink right now?” Participants were asked to rate the anticipated health benefits of the bottled water: “To what extent do you agree with the following statements? a) This drink is healthy, b) This drink would help me reach my health goals, c) This drink would be good for my body in the long-term.” Cronbach’s alpha of these items was ⍺ = 0.83, so they were combined into mean scores.

Participants were then asked their WTP for the bottled water (M = 0.67, SD = 0.30): “How much are you willing to pay for this drink?” On a slider scale, they could pick any number between £0 and £1.50 (with steps of £0.01). Next, participants were asked to imagine being offered a choice between the bottled water they saw in the advertisements and a Coca-Cola and were asked which one they would choose to drink right now.

Participants were then asked to report their consumption frequency of bottled water (any type), tap water, and soft drinks on a 0–100 VAS with anchors 0 = never, 50 = sometimes, 100 = very often. Finally, we collected self-reported demographic information, including age and height and body weight, before participants were debriefed, thanked, and paid.

Coding of feature listing entries

The features that participants listed in the Feature Listing task were coded using a feature listing app (https://niklasjohannes.shinyapps.io/feature coding/) according to a standardized procedure (27). The main features of interest were consumption and reward features and positive long-term health consequences features. The proportion of consumption and reward features was calculated by adding the proportions of sensory and action features (e.g., “sweet”, “cold”, “fizzy”), contextual features (e.g., “with salty food”, “with friends”), and immediate positive consequences (e.g., “tasty”, “thirst quenching”), then dividing this total by the total number of features generated per participant. Similarly, the proportion of long-term positive health features (e.g., “good for you”, “healthy”) was calculated by dividing these features by the total number of features listed by the participant.

Similar to previous findings (12), participants listed an average of 4.59 (SD = 0.72) features. The average proportion of consumption and reward features was 0.45 (SD = 0.29), and the average proportion of 0.10 (SD = 0.15) positive long-term health consequences features was 0.10 (SD = 0.15). These values were similar across all three experiments in the current study.

Analysis plan

To test the effect of advertisement condition, we used binomial regressions for the proportion of consumption and reward features, t-tests (Welch method) for anticipated reward, attractiveness, and desire, and Chi-squared tests to examine the choice for bottled water versus Coca Cola. Confirmatory tests were evaluated based on one-sided tests, and exploratory on two-sided. We adjusted our alpha levels from p < .050 to p < .0125 in order to control for multiple comparisons. For the mediation analyses we used the lavaan package (28). We report unstandardized coefficients given the dichotomous nature of our predictor variable (29). All analyses were conducted in R (30).

All experiments were sequentially pre-registered on the Open Science Framework where all materials, data, and analysis scripts can be accessed (31). Hypotheses were specified before any data was collected. We clearly distinguish between confirmatory analyses to test our hypotheses and exploratory analyses. Additional results of covariate assessments and exploratory analyses can be found in the SOM but do not bear on the main findings.

Results

Confirmatory analyses

The effect of advertisement condition on consumption and reward simulations (Hyp. 1). In line with our hypotheses, participants represented the bottled water more in terms of consumption and reward simulation features after viewing simulation-enhancing advertisements compared to health-focused or control advertisements (see Table 1 and Figure 2).

The effect of advertisement condition on anticipated reward, attractiveness, desire and choice (Hyp. 2-5). Contrary to our hypotheses, there was no difference in anticipated reward, attractiveness, desire, or choice for bottled water vs. Coca-Cola between participants in the different advertisement conditions after controlling for multiple comparisons (see Table 1).

Table 1

Means and test statistics comparing the variables of interest in the different advertisement conditions for Exp. 1, Exp. 2, and Exp. 3

		Control advertisement	Health-focused advertisement	Simulation-enhancing advertisement	Control vs. simulation enhancing	Health-focused vs. simulation enhancing
		M (SD)
Consumption and reward simulation features	Exp. 1	0.38 (0.26)	0.39 (0.28)	0.58 (0.28)	b = 0.80, SE = 0.16, p < .001	b = 0.81, SE = 0.16, p < .001
	Exp. 2	0.41 (0.26)	0.40 (0.27)	0.58 (0.29)	b = 0.68, SE = 0.18, p < .001	b = 0.70, SE = 0.18, p < .001
	Exp. 3	0.40 (0.27)	0.41 (0.27)	0.55 (0.29)	b = 0.63, SE = 0.17, p < .001	b = 0.58, SE = 0.16, p < .001
Anticipated reward	Exp. 1	66.9 (21.3)	67.9 (20.1)	69.8 (20.4)	t = -1.83, df = 653, p = .034	t = -1.20, df = 654, p = .116
	Exp. 2	67.6 (21.7)	68.7 (19.9)	70.0 (20.8)	t = -1.25, df = 522, p = .210	t = -0.73, df = 521, p = .464
	Exp. 3	67.1 (19.9)	68.5 (19.3)	69.2 (21.2)	t = -1.26, df = 600, p = .209	t = -0.45, df = 597, p = .651
Attractiveness	Exp. 1	49.5 (28.3)	47.8 (27.5)	49.1 (26.4)	t = 0.20, df, = 651, p = .578	t = -0.62, df = 653, p = .268
Desire	Exp. 1	56.6 (29.6)	54.1 (30.2)	56.3 (29.3)	t = 0.15, df = 654, p = .558	t = -0.95, df = 654, p = .172
	Exp. 2	57.1 (29.9)	57.1 (28.6)	58.8 (28.8)	t = -0.33, df = 522, p = .371	t = -0.56, df = 521, p = .287
	Exp. 3	61.8 (28.8)	61.9 (28.0)	62.8 (29.0)	t = -0.40, df = 602, p = .344	t = -0.36, df = 602, p = .358
		Binary choices
Choice	Exp. 1	247 water, 81 Coca-Cola	250 water, 78 Coca-Cola	247 water, 81 Coca-Cola	χ² = 0.00, df = 1, p = 1.00	χ² = 0.03, df = 1, p = .855
Willingness To Pay	Exp. 1	0.66 (0.30)	0.66 (0.30)	0.69 (0.30)	t = -1.04, df = 654, p = .299	t = -1.01, df = 654, p = .312
	Exp. 2	0.69 (0.32)	0.73 (0.31)	0.73 (0.32)	t = -1.68, df = 524, p = .094	t = -0.24, df = 522, p = .405
	Exp. 3	0.68 (0.32)	0.67 (0.35)	0.71 (0.34)	t = -1.31, df = 600, p = .096	t = -1.42, df = 602, p = .077
Positive long-term health consequences features	Exp. 1	0.08 (0.13)	0.15 (0.17)	0.07 (0.13)	b = -0.07, SE = 0.30, p = .827	b = -0.81, SE = 0.27, p = .002
	Exp. 2	0.08 (0.14)	0.18 (0.18)	0.07 (0.13)	b = -0.18, SE = 0.33, p = .289	b = -1.05, SE = 0.29, p < .001
	Exp. 3	0.06 (0.10)	0.14 (0.17)	0.06 (0.10)	b = 0.12, SE = 0.34, p = .364	b = -0.86, SE = 0.29, p = .002

The mediating role of anticipated reward (Hyp. 3b and 4b). Although there was no difference in attractiveness and desire ratings of bottled water after viewing simulation-enhancing advertisements compared to control or health-focused advertisements, we conducted the pre-registered mediation analyses in accordance with current practices which allows this even in the absence of a direct effect (32–34). Results from these analyses revealed no significant indirect effect of advertisement through anticipated reward on attractiveness (simulation-enhancing vs. health-focused: b = 1.58, p = .231; simulation-enhancing vs. control: b = 2.69, p = .068), nor on desire (simulation-enhancing vs. health-focused: b = 1.94, p = .231; simulation-enhancing vs. control: b = 2.98, p = .068).

Exploratory analyses

The effect of advertisement condition on willingness to pay. We explored the influence of advertisement condition on WTP and found no difference in WTP for bottled water between participants in the different advertisement conditions (p’s > .299).

The effect of advertisement condition on positive long-term health consequences. Exploring the effect of advertisement condition, we found that after viewing health-focused compared to simulation-enhancing advertisements, participants represented the bottled water more in terms of positive long-term health consequences features. There was no difference between participants who saw control or simulation-enhancing advertisements (see Table 1 and Figure 2).

Mediation through shifts in cognitive representations. We explored whether the proportions of consumption and reward features and long-term positive health consequences features played a role in indirect effects of advertisement condition on desire and WTP, in separate mediation models. While there was no direct effect of advertisement on these variables, indirect pathways were significant, as we describe next (see Table 2 and Figure 3

Table 2 Indirect effects suggesting mediation through representations of consumption and reward simulations and through positive long-term health consequences, across the three experiments.

Mediation through consumption and reward simulations
		Experiment 1			Experiment 2			Experiment 3
		b (SE)	95% CI		b (SE)	95% CI		b (SE)	95% CI
			Lower	Upper		Lower	Upper		Lower	Upper
Health-focused vs. simulation-enhancing	Desire	7.89 (1.16)	5.62	10.2	7.74 (1.29)	5.22	10.27	6.61 (1.17)	4.32	8.91
Health-focused vs. simulation-enhancing	WTP	0.07 (0.01)	0.05	0.09	0.07 (0.01)	0.05	0.10	0.06 (0.01)	0.04	0.08

Control vs. simulation-enhancing	Desire	7.98 (1.16)	5.71	10.3	7.60 (1.30)	5.06	10.14	7.33 (1.20)	4.97	9.69
Control vs. simulation-enhancing	WTP	0.06 (0.01)	0.04	0.08	0.07 (0.01)	0.05	0.10	0.06 (0.01)	0.04	0.08

Mediation through positive long-term health consequences
		Experiment 1			Experiment 2			Experiment 3
		b (SE)	95% CI		b (SE)	95% CI		b (SE)	95% CI
			Lower	Upper		Lower	Upper		Lower	Upper
Health-focused vs. simulation-enhancing	Desire	-2.87 (0.73)	-4.30	-1.44	-2.84 (0.94)	-4.67	1.01	-1.86 (0.68)*	-3.19	0.53
Health-focused vs. simulation-enhancing	WTP	-0.03 (0.01)	-0.04	-0.01	-0.03 (0.01)	-0.05	0.01	-0.04 (0.01)	-0.05	0.02

Control vs. health-focused	Desire	2.99 (0.73)	1.56	4.42	4.16 (0.98)	2.24	6.07	1.82 (0.72)	0.42	3.23
Control vs. health-focused	WTP	0.02 (0.01)	0.01	0.04	0.06 (0.01)	0.03	0.08	0.04 (0.01)	0.02	0.06

Note. The first condition mentioned in the contrast was coded as the reference category.

* p < .05, all other effects were significant at p < .001

Mediation through representations of consumption and reward simulations. There was a significant indirect effect of simulation-enhancing advertisements on desire and WTP, through the proportion of consumption and reward simulation features, compared to health-focused and control advertisements. In other words, simulation-enhancing advertisements increased desire and WTP for water through an increase in consumption and reward simulation features.

Mediation through representations of positive long-term health consequences. There was a significant indirect effect linking health-focused advertisements to more desire and WTP, through the proportion of positive long-term health consequences features, compared to simulation-enhancing and control advertisements. In other words, health-focused advertisements increased desire and WTP for water through an increase in positive long-term health consequences features.

Importantly, in the representations of participants as assessed through our Feature Listing task, participants did not merely copy the words written in the advertisements. Across all conditions, the same kinds of words were used to describe the water, yet in different proportions (see the SOM for more details).

Discussion

In this experiment, participants represented a bottled water more in terms consumption and reward features after seeing simulation-enhancing advertisements compared to health-focused or control advertisements. Moreover, bottled water was represented more in terms of health features after seeing health-focused compared to simulation-enhancing or control advertisements. This suggests that the advertisements shifted participants’ representations of drinks towards consumption and reward or towards health implications. Whereas there was no direct effect of advertisement on desire or WTP, significant indirect effects showed that simulation-enhancing advertisements increased desire and WTP through increased consumption and reward representations, and health-focused advertisements increased attractiveness, desire, and WTP through increased representations of health.

Indirect effects can be significant and important to establish in the absence of a direct or total effect (33,34). This pattern can occur, for instance, if the effect of the mediator on the dependent variable is stronger than the direct effect. In this experiment, the effect of condition on desire may have been masked by the influence of completing the Feature Listing task on desire reported afterwards. This may have not occurred if desire had been measured right after seeing the advertisements. Alternatively, when there are two indirect effects with opposite directionality, the total effect may appear as not significant, and/or the direct may become significant (i.e., suppression effect; 32). It is likely that our two mediators acted as suppressors of the other pathway. Specifically, we found two opposing pathways through which simulation-enhancing and health-focused advertisements influence desire: through consumption and reward simulations and through health perceptions.

These results suggest that desire for bottled water is predicted by representations in terms of consumption and enjoyment after viewing simulation-enhancing advertisements, and by representations in terms of long-term health benefits after viewing health-focused advertisements. A possible explanation for why emphasizing the health benefits of water may increase desire for water is that people may feel positive affect when imagining the positive long-term consequences of drinking water on their health. Moreover, previous research suggests that health information may increase perceptions of tastiness of foods and drinks (36,37). Alternatively, the health-focused ads used in this experiment may have been attractive because they contained both health information and images that may have induced simulations of consumption and reward (e.g., an image of two people seemingly enjoying drinking the water).

To address this latter point, we replicated Exp. 1, adjusting the advertisements in the health-focused condition such that only the health benefits of water were emphasized. This was done by 1) changing the images to match the text in the advertisements and to emphasize the health benefits of water. This differentiated them more from the images in the simulation-enhancing advertisements, and 2) removing all references to the purity of water in the health-focused text and replaced them with health-related words.

In addition, in Exp. 2, we added a measure assessing self-reported drinking simulations. This allowed us to assess whether imagining the positive long-term health consequences of water increases simulations of drinking water.

In Exp. 2, we tested the hypotheses that simulation-enhancing advertisements would increase representations in terms of consumption and reward features (Hyp. 1a), and that these features would mediate the effect of simulation-enhancing advertisements on desire and WTP compared to health-focused or control advertisements (mediation; Hyp. 1b and 1c). Moreover, we predicted that health-focused advertisements would increase representations in terms of long-term positive health consequences features (Hyp. 2a), and that these features would mediate the effect of health-focused advertisements on desire and WTP compared to simulation-enhancing and control advertisements (mediation; Hyp. 2b and 2c). In addition, we predicted that the indirect pathway through consumption and reward would be stronger than that through positive long-term health consequences (Hyp. 3). Finally, we planned to explore whether the indirect effects of advertisement on attractiveness and desire through proportion of positive long-term health consequences could be explained by increased self-reported drinking simulations.

Method

Participants

Power analyses suggested a minimum sample size of N = 765 (see SOM for more details). Participants were invited in the same way and excluded according to the same criteria as in Exp. 1. We collected data from N = 786 participants and excluded one participant who took more than four times the median duration to complete the study. The final sample consisted of N = 785 participants of which 65% identified as female, 34% as male, and 1% as nonbinary or other. The mean age was 40 (SD = 15) years.

Experimental design and stimuli

Like Exp.1, the experiment had a between-subjects design with random assignment to three advertisement conditions: simulation-enhancing, health-focused, or control. The advertisements used in the simulation-enhancing and control condition were the same as in Exp.1. For the health-focused advertisements, we removed all references to purity from the slogans by replacing “purest” with “healthiest”, and purifying” with “nourishing”. In addition, we ran a pilot study to select new images for the health-focused advertisements.

Piloting the advertisements. We designed a pilot study to select new images for the health-focused advertisements that would be similar to those in the simulation-enhancing advertisements in terms of 1) valence, 2) the extent to which people can imagine being in the situation shown in the advertisement, and 3) how well the slogan fits the images in the advertisement. A sample of N = 200 (M_age = 41, SD_age = 13, 69% female) participants were asked to rate the images on these three characteristics. We piloted a total of 24 new health-focused advertisements (8 new images paired with each of the 3 slogans) and selected those that best matched the simulation-enhancing ads using one-to-one propensity score matching (see the SOM for more details about this pilot and Figure 4 for the final selection of the health-focused advertisements).

Procedure and measures

The procedure and measures were almost identical as to those in Exp. 1. First, participants were asked to rate their thirst (M = 47.1, SD = 25.7). They were then shown the same instructions as in Exp. 1 where they were asked to take a close look at each advertisement and try to immerse themselves in it, again customized for each advertisement condition. They then did the Feature Listing task, and then rated the bottled water on desire and WTP. Next, participants were asked to rate their experience of drinking simulations (⍺ = .89) when seeing the bottled water on the following items: “When I see this drink... a) I imagine drinking it, b) I imagine what it would taste like, c) I imagine what it would feel like in my mouth.” Responses were recorded on a 0-100 VAS with the anchors 0 = not at all, 100 = very/completely. Participants then rated the anticipated reward (⍺ = .88) and anticipated health benefits of water (⍺ = .86), their drinks consumption frequency, and provided demographic information, before being debriefed, thanked, and paid.

We removed the question about the attractiveness of the bottled water given that results for attractiveness and desire were very similar and that ratings on these items were highly correlated in Exp. 1 (r = 0.646, p < .001). We also removed the choice task since participants reported to be much more likely to select the bottled water over the Coca-Cola across all conditions in Exp. 1.

Analysis plan

The analysis plan was identical to that in Exp. 1. In addition, to compare the relative strength of the two indirect effects, we carried out a Likelihood Ratio test (38).

Results

The effect of advertisement condition on consumption and reward simulations (Hyp. 1a)

In line with our hypothesis and findings in Exp. 1, participants represented the bottled water more in terms of consumption and reward simulation features after viewing simulation-enhancing advertisements compared to health-focused advertisements, or control advertisements (see Table 1 and Figure 2).

Mediation through representations of consumption and reward simulations (Hyp. 1b and 1c). There was a significant indirect effect linking simulation-enhancing advertisements to more desire and WTP through the proportion of consumption and reward simulation features, compared to health-focused and control advertisements (see Table 2).

The effect of advertisement condition on positive long-term health consequences (Hyp. 2a)

In line with our hypothesis and findings in Exp. 1, participants represented the bottled water more in terms of long-term positive health consequences features after viewing health-focused advertisements compared to simulation-enhancing advertisements, or control advertisements (see Table 1 and Figure 2).

Mediation through representations of positive long-term health consequences (H2b and H2c). There was a significant indirect effect linking health-focused advertisements to more desire and WTP through the proportion of positive long-term health consequences features, compared to simulation-enhancing and control advertisements (see Table 2).

Comparing the relative strength of the indirect effects (Hyp. 3)

We used a Likelihood Ratio test to compare the relative strength of the two indirect effects through consumption and reward simulations and positive long-term health consequences. This analysis indicated that a model including both indirect effects from advertisement on desire was significantly different from a model constraining these effects to be equal, χ²= 73.0, df = 1, p < .001. Thus, we can conclude that the pathway through representations of consumption and reward simulations is significantly stronger than that through positive long-term health consequences (see Figure 3).

Exploring a serial mediation through self-reported drinking simulations. Lastly, we explored whether the effect of advertisement condition on desire and WTP through the proportion of positive long-term health consequences features could be explained by increased drinking simulations. A serial mediation with 5000 bootstrapping samples confirmed significant indirect effects through the proportion of long-term positive health consequences features and drinking simulations on desire, b = 2.22, SE = 0.57, p < .001, 95% CI [1.10, 3.35] and WTP, b = 0.01, SE = 0.01, p < .001, 95% CI [0.01, 0.02]. See Figure 5. We carried out additional mediation analyses presented in the SOM to establish the robustness of the indirect effect (39).

These findings suggest that increased representations of positive long-term health consequences after viewing health-focused advertisements compared to control advertisements increased desire and WTP for bottled water because of increased simulations of the sensory experience of drinking it.

Discussion

The findings of Exp. 2 replicate those of Exp. 1: Participants who viewed simulation-enhancing advertisements represented the bottled water more in terms of consumption and reward simulations, and those who viewed health-focused advertisements represented the bottled water more in terms of positive long-term health consequences. Again, significant indirect effects showed that simulation-enhancing advertisements increased desire and WTP through representations of consumption and reward simulations, and health-focused advertisements increased desire and WTP through representations of positive long-term health consequences, as measured in a Feature Listing task. The effect through consumption and reward simulations was stronger than through positive long-term health consequences, suggesting that addressing these representations in advertisements may be more effective in increasing motivation for bottled water. Lastly, Exp. 2 indicated that thinking about the positive long-term health consequences of water increases desire for water through simulations of consuming water.

In Exp. 1 and Exp. 2, participants were asked to immerse themselves in the situations shown in the advertisements for 30 seconds and were given detailed instructions on what aspects of the advertisements to focus on. However, this may not be the way that people typically process advertisements in daily-life settings. To address this limitation, in Exp. 3, we replicated this procedure in a more naturalistic way by merely asking participants to look at each advertisement for 10 seconds. This is closer to how consumers may process advertisements in daily-life situations outside of the laboratory. Previous research has also shown that 10 seconds is the duration at which the effect of exposure on advertisement recognition and recall starts to diminish (40). We tested the same hypotheses in Exp. 3 as in Exp. 2. In addition, we now formally predicted the indirect effect of health-focused vs. control advertisement on desire and WTP via representations of long-term positive health consequences and drinking simulations (Hyp 4).

Method

Participants

Power analyses suggested a minimum sample size of N = 900 (see SOM for more details). Participants were invited in the same way and excluded according to the same criteria as in Exp. 1 and 2. We collected data from N = 917 participants and excluded participants who took more than four times the median duration to complete the study (n = 1) and those with incomplete responses (n = 9). The final sample consisted of N = 907 participants of which 72% identified as female, 27% as male, and 1% as nonbinary or other. The mean age was 38 (SD = 13) years.

Experimental design and stimuli

Like Exp.1 and 2, the study had a between-subjects design with random assignment to three advertisement conditions: simulation-enhancing, health-focused, or control. The advertisements used in the simulation-enhancing and health-focused condition were the same as in Exp. 2. For the control condition, three new advertisements were created featuring the bottled water in a neutral outdoor environment with no references to reward or health aspects (see Figure 6). In addition, all participants saw three filler advertisements for an insurance company.

Procedure and measures

The procedure and measures were almost identical as to those in Exp. 1 and 2. First, participants were first asked to rate their thirst (M = 50.2, SD = 24.7). Then, participants were asked to simply look at the advertisements for 10 seconds. They then completed the Feature Listing task and rated their experience of drinking simulations (⍺ = 0.88), desire for the bottled water, and WTP. Finally, participants rated the anticipated reward (⍺ = .88) and anticipated health benefits of water (⍺ = .86), their drink consumption frequency, and provided demographic information, before they were debriefed, thanked, and paid.

Results

The effect of advertisement condition on consumption and reward simulations (Hyp. 1a)

In line with our hypothesis and findings in Exp. 1 and 2, participants represented the bottled water more in terms of consumption and reward simulation features after viewing simulation-enhancing advertisements compared to health-focused or control advertisements (see Table 1 and Figure 2).

Mediation through representations of consumption and reward simulations (Hyp. 1b and 1c). Again as predicted, there was a significant indirect effect linking simulation-enhancing advertisements to more desire and WTP through the proportion of consumption and reward simulation features, compared to health-focused and control advertisements.

The effect of advertisement condition on positive long-term health consequences (Hyp. 2a)

In line with our hypothesis and findings in Exp. 1 and 2, participants represented the bottled water more in terms of long-term positive health consequences features for the bottled water after viewing health-focused advertisements compared to simulation-enhancing and control advertisements (see Table 1 and Figure 2).

Mediation through representations of positive long-term health consequences (H2b and H2c). Again as predicted, there was a significant indirect effect linking health-focused advertisements to more desire and WTP through the proportion of positive long-term health consequences features, compared to simulation-enhancing and control advertisements.

Comparing the relative strength of the indirect effects (Hyp. 3)

A Likelihood-Ratio test indicated that a model including both indirect effects from advertisement on desire was significantly different compared to a model constraining these effects to be equal, χ²= 57.8, df = 1, p < .001. Thus, like in Exp. 2 and as hypothesised, the pathway through consumption and reward features was significantly stronger than the pathway through positive long-term health consequences features (see Figure 4).

Serial mediation through self-reported drinking simulations (Hyp. 4). Finally, in line with our hypothesis and as in Exp. 2, a serial mediation with 5000 bootstrapping samples confirmed significant indirect effects through the proportion of long-term positive health consequences features and drinking simulations on desire, b = 0.98, SE = 0.47, p = .035, 95% CI [1.11, 3.41] and WTP, b = 0.01, SE = 0.01, p = .037, 95% CI [0.00, 0.01]. See Figure 5. Robustness checks can be found in the SOM.

Discussion

The findings of Exp. 3 replicate those of Exp. 1 and 2 using a more naturalistic method. Again, participants represented bottled water more in terms of consumption and reward simulations after viewing simulation-enhancing advertisements, and more in terms of positive long-term health consequences after seeing health-focused advertisements. Again, significant indirect effects showed that simulation-enhancing advertisements increased desire and WTP through the proportion of consumption and reward simulation features, and health-focused advertisements through the proportion of positive long-term health consequences features. Critically, the effect through consumption and reward simulations was again stronger than through positive long-term health consequences. Finally, Exp. 3 replicated the finding of Exp. 2 indicating that thinking about the positive long-term health consequences of water drinking may impact desire for water through self-reported drinking simulations.

In a series of three pre-registered, well-powered experiments, we found that advertisements emphasising the rewarding or health aspects of bottled water increased desire and WTP through a shift in cognitive representations. Participants who viewed advertisements emphasising the sensory and consumption aspects of water represented this water more in terms of consumption and reward simulations, which in turn predicted desire and WTP for this water. In a similar way, participants who viewed advertisements of a bottled water emphasising its positive impact on health and longevity, represented this water more in terms of positive long-term health consequences, which subsequently predicted desire and WTP. Comparing the strength of these two indirect pathways showed that the pathway through consumption and reward simulations was stronger. This suggests that advertising the rewarding aspects of water may be a more effective way of increasing motivation for bottled water than focusing on its health benefits. In addition, our results suggest that health perceptions affected motivation for water through simulations of drinking water, again suggesting that simulations of consuming water were critical for increasing desire for it.

Theoretical and practical implications

While the advertisements did not have a direct effect on motivation for bottled water, they induced a shift in participant’s representations of a fictitious bottled water, which in turn affected their motivation. These results are in line with predictions by the grounded cognition theory of desire and motivated behaviour, which describes motivation as guided by simulations of previously encountered experiences (14). Merely by emphasising properties inherent in bottled water (such as its refreshing nature and its health benefits), participant’s representations of the bottled water changed, at least temporarily, as indicated in their descriptions of the water during feature listing.

It could be argued that rather than changing representations, our manipulation merely primed participants with certain features of water, or in other words, increased the accessibility of consumption and reward-related information, or of health-related information, compared to the control conditions (41). While most of the results are consistent with such a priming account, we propose that our findings suggest that participants simulated drinking and enjoying the water in response to the simulation-enhancing advertisements in particular. Specifically, participants listed a variety of features that had not been mentioned in the advertisements in the feature listing task, suggesting that they simulated drinking when asked to describe it, rather than only listing words that had been made accessible by the advertisement. In addition, the serial mediation analysis showed that while health-focused advertisements increased the number of health-related words used to describe the water, their impact on desire was mediated by drinking simulations. This indirect effect suggests that our findings do not represent mere information recall, but that the advertisements indeed made participants simulate, or re-experience, drinking the water. In sum, our results do not provide definite evidence of the processes by which advertisements impact drinking motivation, but suggest that this is through a change in representations rather than a mere priming effect. This is also in line with previous research showing that sensory-enhanced advertisements only affect taste perceptions when cognitive resources are available (19), again suggesting that more than mere priming plays a role.

Our findings that the increase in motivation through health perceptions may be driven by an increase in simulations of drinking the water may warrant further research. These findings suggest that health-focused advertisements may also boost representations of consumption and reward, or activate simulations of drinking it, and hence increase motivation. In this case, perceiving water as healthier may affect perceptions of how tasty the water is, or how rewarding it will be to consume the water. This is in line with previous research suggesting that health and taste perceptions are closely related (36,37) and that emphasizing the rewarding aspects of healthy foods in language increases desire to consume them in that moment (17,18). Whether this effect holds for foods and drinks that are more or less appealing than the rather neutral product water, may be an interesting question for future studies.

Overall, however, our findings suggest that emphasizing sensory and reward aspects of water consumption is more effective at changing perceptions and increasing motivation for water than emphasizing health benefits. Indeed, as in the experiments reported here, previous research (12) has shown that people tend to represent water more in terms of sensory and reward aspects than long-term health benefits, and this predicts desire and intake. Not liking its taste is a barrier to water consumption, while perceiving water as tasty is related to increased and more effortless consumption (42,43). In addition, people report enjoying water because it makes them feel good, happy, and helps them to stay alert (42) (Rodger, 2021). In sum, feeling good in the moment seems a key determinant of habitual behaviours, and may be the key to generating health behaviour change (44,45). Thus, in contrast to current interventions that mainly focus on improving knowledge about water’s positive long-term health consequences (for a systematic review, see 43), interventions should rather emphasize the short-term rewards associated with drinking water. In line with the grounded cognition approach, healthy drinking interventions should activate positive representations of a desired behaviour at moments when people need to make a drink choice (47). These positive representations can take many forms, such as emphasizing the sensory pleasure, the drinking enjoyment, feeling physically well after drinking, or even the approval of the behaviour by other people, as long as the perceived reward is immediate and is congruent with the product (14,47).

The results of Exp. 3 suggest that this can be done through simple advertisements including images and words presented for 10 seconds. This could be easily applied in a large-scale intervention implemented for the general public, for instance in media such as television, or in specific consumption situations such as vending machines. While we tested this approach only with regard to bottled water in an advertisement context, we suggest that the underlying principle of emphasising consumption and reward experiences, and thus immediate benefits of consumption, may equally apply to tap water, which is more affordable and sustainable as a beverage than bottled water. In general, our findings suggest that emphasising the immediate consumption benefits may be a more effective intervention strategy compared to current intervention approaches focusing on health.

Strengths and limitations

This series of experiments is the first to examine the impact of advertisements on cognitive representations of bottled water in relation to motivation. Given the negative public health effects of SSBs and the strong industry and lobby supporting them (48,49), it is crucial to increase the attractiveness of healthier beverages. Our results show that using consumption and reward language and visual imagery as typically used in SSB campaigns can change the representation that people hold of bottled water, which in turn can increase motivation to consume it. Importantly, while advertisements emphasizing the health benefits of water shifted representations of water to being seen as beneficial in the long-term, which in turn affected the extent to which participants reported simulating a rewarding consumption experience, this effect was significantly smaller. Future studies may test whether emphasising both properties of bottled water may be even more effective in increasing motivation.

The above findings were replicated across 3 experiments that included large samples, and pre-registered hypotheses. Similar findings were found across several measures, in particular desire and WTP, and our Feature Listing task is a production method that is potentially less susceptible to demand effects than traditional rating scales, suggesting that our findings are robust.

Nevertheless, there are some limitations to be considered. First, all experiments were carried out online and did not include an actual choice or purchase task. Future studies should replicate this paradigm in a real-life consumer setting. Second, participants in our sample consisted of regular water drinkers. Across experiments, participants reported consuming tap water 2.3 times and bottled water 1.7 times more often than SSBs. This is higher compared to population-level measures of water and SSB consumption (50). While this is encouraging in the sense that it suggests that even in a sample of regular water drinkers, our advertisements engendered a representational shift and increased motivation for a bottled water, future studies could examine whether such advertisements are equally or even more effective in a sample of infrequent water consumers.

And lastly, while the advertisements induced representational shifts captured during the experiment, it remains to be tested whether these shifts can have longer-lasting effects on cognitive representations of water, and hence produce long-term effects on motivation. Previous research suggests that advertisements can shape expectations and actual sensory experiences of food (19,51). Future studies may examine how expectations of how tasty or rewarding a water is interacts with the actual experience when the water is consumed.

This research demonstrates that viewing bottled water advertisements can shift representations of the water and increase motivation to consume it. Three experiments showed that advertisements emphasising the rewarding or health aspects of a fictitious bottled water increased desire and WTP through a shift in the cognitive representation of the bottled water. In particular, viewing advertisements emphasising the sensory and consumption aspects of water increased representations of this water as tasty and rewarding, which in turn increased motivation to drink the water. These results suggest that emphasizing the immediate consumption rewards of water drinking in health interventions or campaigns may be effective at instigating health behaviour change.

Ethics

The research protocol was approved by the College of Science and Engineering Ethics Committee, University of Glasgow. All methods were carried out in accordance with relevant guidelines and regulations. Written informed consent was obtained from participants prior to participation.

Consent for publication

N/A

Availability of data and materials

The datasets supporting the conclusions of this article are available in the OSF repository: https://osf.io/s4kwv/?view_only=d16a8a64f0c54727b3ae3ffe9616e525.

Funding

This work was supported by ESRC Research Grant ES/R005419/1.

Competing interests

The authors declare that they do not have competing interests.

Authors’ contributions

The authors’ responsibilities were as follows. MAC: Contributed to the study conception and design, data collection and data analysis, and prepared draft Manuscript. EKP: Contributed to the study conception and design and writing of manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Acknowledgements

N/A

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No competing interests reported.

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Representational shifts: Increasing motivation for bottled water through simulation-enhancing advertisements

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