The Effects of Ambient Light on Choices between Virtues and Vices

In most retail contexts, managers usually have flexibility in controlling the ambient light intensity. Hence, not surprisingly, stores and restaurants vary greatly in terms of ambient light intensity with some stores and restaurants being very bright (e.g. Bed, Bath and Beyond, Chipotle) and others being very dim (e.g. Hollister) or even pitch dark (e.g. The Opaque Restaurant Chain). Along these lines, would the ambient light intensity in a store or restaurant influence consumers’ choices between vice and virtue products? We focus mostly on choices between healthy (virtue) and unhealthy (vice) food items, but we also test the robustness of our findings in a non-food budget allocation context. Building on prior research streams, two alternative hypotheses can be proposed. First, research in the domain of sensory compensation would suggest that deficiency or weakness in one sensory input tends to get compensated with better processing of stimuli from other sensory inputs (Hoover et al. 2012; Kolarik et al. 2013). Based on this literature stream, it can be proposed that diminished ambient light would lead to increased sensitivity and alertness in the non-visual modalities. If this holds, a consumer is more likely to choose the virtue/healthy item when the ambient light is dim (vs. bright). In contrast, research in the domains of sleep behavior and disinhibition will predict an opposite pattern of results. Specifically, consumers might be more mentally alert and less sleepy in bright (vs. dim) light, because among other physiological changes, bright light suppresses melatonin, which is the primary controller of circadian (day/night) sleep bio-rhythms (Lowden et al. 2004). Thus, consumers would be less mentally alert in dimly (vs. brightly) lit environments, and therefore less likely to rely on cognitive effortful processing when choosing between virtue and vice products. Second, consumer decision-making would more disinhibited in dim (vs. bright) ambient light since dark/dim lights give people a sense of illusory anonymity and encourage moral transgressions (Zhong et al. 2010). Thus, theories related to both mental alertness and disinhibition would predict greater preference for vices/unhealthy foods when the ambient light is dim (vs. bright).