Sweet Protection: Using Sweets to Manage Relationships

Gifting food is a common consumer behavior. For instance, when going to a Superbowl party, an individual may bring a bag of chips or cookies. Likewise, one may choose a gift box of assorted nuts or chocolates, or a gift basket of coffee or cocoa. In all of these instances the gift involves an indulgent food. Yet we propose that the taste of the food will influence its likelihood of being given as a gift, especially when the giver’s motivations are to avoid negative evaluation. Individuals manage relationships to balance self-other connections and to self-protect. Because foods with sweet (vs. other) tastes carry prosocial associations (Meier et al. 2012), individuals may give sweet gifts in order to communicate that they are metaphorically sweet (agreeable) or to buffer against potential negative evaluation—sweeten the recipient. Thus, our goals are twofold: to examine (1) whether sweet foods are given more often as gifts, and if so, (2) whether this is motivated by self-presentation or self-protection.