Overcoming consumption barriers for conscious food products: The relevance of measures encouraging individual sensory imagery

The present paper focuses on combating lay theory-based consumption barriers towards conscious food products. We draw on literature on sensory imagery, the availability-valence hypothesis and Grice’s Theory of Conversational Implicature and report an experimental study, involving sensory testing, storytelling, and VR technology, investigating the effects of vividness of sensory imagery on consumers’ behavioral intentions. The experimental study (n = 160) was conceptualized as a mixed design study. Results provide first empirical evidence for the fact that stimulating individual imagery by storytelling can be more efficient in reducing consumption barriers than the use of VR technology or verbal sensory product descriptions.