Abstract: Spicy food is more than just a sensory experience; it may shape how powerful we feel. This research proposes and tests the “spicy empowerment effect,” the idea that consuming spicy food can enhance an individual’s psychological sense of power. We hypothesize that consuming spicy food increases individuals’ psychological sense of power, which in turn influences their purchase intentions for products promoted by competence-oriented (vs. warmth-oriented) advertising and their risk-taking and challenge- seeking behaviors.
We tested this effect across a pilot study, three main studies, and an additional study using real-world behavioral data. The pilot study employed a personality judgment task to assess whether individuals labeled as “spicy food lovers” were perceived as more powerful than those who preferred sour or sweet flavors, examining the association between spiciness and psychological power from a social cognition perspective. Study 1 was a laboratory experiment testing whether participants who tasted spicy (vs. mild) snacks reported remarkably higher levels of psychological power. Study 2 examined whether spicy food consumption led participants to prefer purchasing products promoted by competence- (vs. warmth-) oriented advertising and tested the mediating role of psychological power in this relationship. Study 3 utilized a pretest-posttest design to validate robustly the effect on psychological power and extended the findings to behavioral outcomes, namely, risk taking (high-risk investment) and challenge seeking (willingness to attempt a challenging task). Finally, an additional study analyzed real-world behavioral data to examine the association between regional food preferences (spicy vs. mild) and consumers’ likelihood of clicking the shopping cart on advertisements emphasizing competence rather than warmth.
Results showed that in the pilot study, individuals labeled as “spicy food lovers” were perceived as more powerful than those preferring sour or sweet flavors (p < 0.001). Study 1 demonstrated that consuming spicy (vs. mild) food significantly elevated participants’ psychological power (p < 0.001), even after controlling for mood, food liking, inherent preference for spicy food, gender, and age. In Study 2, the interaction between food taste and advertising appeal (competence vs. warmth) was significant (p = 0.004); spicy food consumption increased purchase intentions for competence-oriented advertisements via heightened psychological power (indirect effect = 0.38, SE = 0.14, 95% CI = [0.14, 0.70]). Study 3 showed that spicy food significantly increased psychological power from pretest to posttest (p < 0.001), which subsequently increased participants’ propensity for high-risk investment (p < 0.001) and willingness to attempt challenging tasks (p < 0.001). The additional study further demonstrated that users from high-spice regions were more likely to click the shopping cart on competence-framed advertisements (interaction term: p < 0.05), validating the real-world impact of the empowering effect.
Across a pilot study, three main studies, and an additional real-world data analysis, we demonstrate that spicy food consumption can enhance individuals’ psychological sense of power, shaping their purchase intentions in response to different advertising appeals and promoting risk-taking and challenge-seeking behaviors. These findings contribute to the literature on food psychology, psychological power, and sensory marketing, highlighting how a simple gustatory experience can influence internal psychological states and consequential consumer actions. From a practical perspective, marketers may harness this effect by aligning spicy-themed products with power- and competence-oriented messaging. More broadly, our findings suggest a natural, low-cost, and accessible way for individuals to activate a sense of psychological empowerment and embrace challenges.

Key words: empowering effect of spiciness, psychological sense of power, advertising appeal, food psychology, sensory marketing