关键词: 食辣赋能, 心理权力感, 广告诉求, 食品心理学, 感官营销

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 spicy food consumption increases an individual’s psychological sense of power, which in turn influences their purchase intentions for products promoted with 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 preferring sour or sweet flavors, testing the association between spiciness and psychological power from a social cognition perspective. Study 1 was a lab experiment testing whether participants who tasted spicy (vs. mild) snacks reported significantly higher levels of psychological power. Study 2 examined whether spicy food consumption led participants to prefer purchasing products from competence- (vs. warmth-) oriented advertising, examining the mediating role of psychological power in the relationship. Study 3 utilized a pre-test/post-test design to robustly validate the effect on psychological power and extended the findings to behavioral outcomes, namely risk-taking (high-risk investment) and challenge-seeking (willingness to try a challenging task). Finally, an additional study analyzed real-world behavioral data to examine the association between regional food taste (spicy vs. mild) and consumers’ likelihood of clicking the shopping cart on ads emphasizing competence rather than warmth. 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 showed that consuming spicy (vs. mild) food significantly elevated participants’ psychological power (p < 0.001), even after controlling for participants’ mood, food liking, inherent preference for spicy food, gender, and age. In Study 2, the interaction between food taste and ad appeal (competence vs. warmth) was significant (p = 0.004); spicy food consumption increased purchase intentions for products promoted with competence-oriented ads via heightened psychological power (indirect effect = 0.38, SE = 0.14, 95% CI = [0.14, 0.70]). Study 3 demonstrated that spicy food significantly increased psychological power from pre-test to post-test (p < 0.001) and subsequently increased participants’ high-risk investment propensity (p < 0.001) and willingness to attempt challenging tasks (p < 0.001). The additional study demonstrated that users from high-spice regions were more likely to click the shopping cart on competence-framed ads (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. Marketers may harness this effect by aligning spicy-themed products with power- and competence-oriented messaging. Practically, 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 appeals, food psychology, sensory marketing