Food as Fuel: Performance Goals Increase the Consumption of High-Calorie Foods at the Expense of Good Nutrition

At work, at school, at the gym club, or even at home, consumers often face challenging situations in which they are motivated to perform their best. This research demonstrates that activating performance goals, whether in cognitive or physical domains, leads to an increase in the consumption of high-calorie foods at the expense of good nutrition. This effect derives from beliefs that the function of food is to provide energy for the body (food as fuel) coupled with poor nutrition literacy, leading consumers to overgeneralize the instrumental role of calories for performance. Indeed, nutrition experts choose very different foods (lower in calorie, higher in nutritional value) than lay consumers in response to performance goals. Also, performance goals no longer increase calorie intake when emphasizing the hedonic function of food (food for pleasure). Hence, while consumer research often interprets the overconsumption of pleasurable and unhealthy high-calorie foods as a consequence of hedonic goals and self-control failures, our research suggests that this overconsumption may also be explained by a maladaptive motivation to manage energy intake.