Browsing by Author "Jaspers E"

Now showing 1 - 3 of 3
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    Engagement in Vice Food and Beverage Consumption: The Role of Perceived Lack of Control
    (Wiley, 2022) Lunardo R; Jaud D; Jaspers E
    Prior research has established a link between lacking control over one's life, the resulting stress, and the maladaptive outcome of eating disorders. However, such research has left unexamined the exact link among perceptions of control, stress, and unhealthy food choices. This study aims to fill this gap by identifying the exact sequence linking these variables and explaining why stress induced by low control leads to engagement in vice food consumption. Based on self-licensing theory, we predict that a perceived lack of control indirectly prompts people to engage in vice food and beverage consumption, because a lack of control leads to higher personal stress and, consequently, a need to escape through self-indulgence. Across one survey-based study in France and two experiments (in the United States and the United Kingdom), we find consistent support for our hypothesis. The results support the prediction that a perceived lack of control increases the consumption of unhealthy foods and beverages. Specifically, when consumers feel a lack of control over their life, they experience stress, seek an escape from this stress, and end up self-indulging through the consumption of vice food and beverages. For public policy-makers and brand managers, the results suggest that having people perceive more control over their life is of particular importance to staying healthy.
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    Materialism and Life Satisfaction Relations Between and Within People Over Time: Results of a Three-Wave Longitudinal Study
    (Wiley, 24/03/2023) Jaspers E; Pandelaere M; Pieters R; Shrum LJ
    The negative association between materialism and life satisfaction is well-documented, but it is unclear what the directionality of the association is. To address this issue, we (a) conducted a 3-wave longitudinal study (N = 6,551) over 3 years and examined the bidirectional relations between life satisfaction and materialism as a composite measure and with each of its three facets (happiness, success, centrality), and (b) estimated Random Intercept Cross-Lagged Panel Models (RI-CLPMs) that separate inter- and intra-individual effects and compared them with traditional CLPMs that do not. The traditional CLPM showed bidirectional negative associations between composite materialism and life satisfaction and strong negative bidirectional association for the happiness facet, but positive effects of the centrality facet on life satisfaction. However, and importantly, the RI-CLPM revealed that these relations exist predominantly between people. Within people, materialism does not impact life satisfaction, but life satisfaction does impact the happiness facet negatively. These findings challenge common ideas that the direction of the effect is from materialism to life satisfaction and that it is unilaterally negative.