Abstract:

According to the processing fluency theories, the current research proposes that expressing product information in odd (vs. even) numbers can improve consumers’ preference for healthy food and conducts five experiments to demonstrate this proposition. Specifically, we first establish the correlation between odd numbers and healthy food in experiment 1. Findings show that consumers tend to express product information in odd numbers when describing healthy (vs. ordinary) food (experiment 1a), and they perceive the food healthier when its product information is represented in odd (vs. even) numbers (experiment 1b). We then employ different experiment stimuli to empirically test the causal relationship between parity and preference for healthy food (experiment 2 and 3) and demonstrate further that such an odd-number-facilitation effect only exists in healthy (vs. ordinary) food domain (experiment 4). In addition, we rule out the potential effects of magnitude of numbers, consumers’ thinking style, and individual preferences for odd (vs. even) numbers. Finally, theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Key words: processing fluency, parity, odd numbers, complexity, preference for healthy food