Anthropomorphic Sad Expressions Reduce Waste of “Single” Imperfect Food

Gerecht, Svenja; Eckmann, Lisa; Wentzel, Daniel; Landwehr, Jan R. Article — Published Version Anthropomorphic Sad Expressions Reduce Waste of “Single” Imperfect Food Psychology & Marketing Provided in Cooperation with: John Wiley & Sons Suggested Citation: Gerecht, Svenja; Eckmann, Lisa; Wentzel, Daniel; Landwehr, Jan R. (2024) : Anthropomorphic Sad Expressions Reduce Waste of “Single” Imperfect Food, Psychology & Marketing, ISSN 1520-6793, Wiley, Hoboken, NJ, Vol. 42, Iss. 3, pp. 669-683, https://doi.org/10.1002/mar.22145 This Version is available at: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/319316 Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen: Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden. Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen. Sofern die Verfasser die Dokumente unter Open-Content-Lizenzen (insbesondere CC-Lizenzen) zur Verfügung gestellt haben sollten, gelten abweichend von diesen Nutzungsbedingungen die in der dort genannten Lizenz gewährten Nutzungsrechte. Terms of use: Documents in EconStor may be saved and copied for your personal and scholarly purposes. You are not to copy documents for public or commercial purposes, to exhibit the documents publicly, to make them publicly available on the internet, or to distribute or otherwise use the documents in public. If the documents have been made available under an Open Content Licence (especially Creative Commons Licences), you may exercise further usage rights as specified in the indicated licence. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Psychology & Marketing RESEARCH ARTICLE Anthropomorphic Sad Expressions Reduce Waste of “Single”Imperfect Food Svenja Gerecht 1 | Lisa Eckmann 2 | Daniel Wentzel 1 | Jan R. Landwehr 2 1 School of Business and Economics, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany | 2 Faculty of Economics and Business, Goethe University Frankfurt, Frankfurt am Main, Germany Correspondence: Lisa Eckmann ([email protected]) Received: 6 February 2024 | Revised: 11 October 2024 | Accepted: 12 October 2024 Keywords: anthropomorphism | emotional expressions | food waste | imperfect food | point‐of‐sale communication ABSTRACT Point‐of‐sale anthropomorphism—attributing human characteristics to nonhuman entities—has been shown to increase evaluations of food that deviates in shape or form from consumer expectations (“imperfect food”). However, while previous research has included the use of primary emotions to manipulate anthropomorphism, it is unclear whether depicting imperfect produce with happy or sad emotional expressions is more effective in boosting choice of such produce. This research addresses this gap and additionally examines a novel type of imperfection: when produce is torn off the bunch it normally comes in. A field study conducted at a large food retailer in Germany revealed that sales of “single”bananas significantly increased when they were anthropomorphized with sad emotions compared to when they were anthropomorphized with happy emotions or not anthropomorphized. Across three preregistered online experiments, this research corroborates the effectiveness of sad emotional expressions in boosting purchase intentions, establishes compassion as the underlying process, generalizes this effect to other produce (i.e., tomatoes), and shows that a price discount eliminates this effect. The findings of this research are particularly relevant for food retailers aiming to increase purchases, and thus reduce waste, of fresh produce that has become a loose “single.” 1 | Introduction According to the UNEP Food Waste Index 2024, more than 1.05 billion tons of food are wasted globally (UN Environment Programme 2024)—by 2030, this number is projected to double to 2.1 billion tons (BCG 2024). Currently, 131 million tons occur in the retail sector alone (UN Environment Programme 2024). In industrialized nations, this waste mainly results from trade norms and picky consumer preferences concerning the flawless appearance of fresh produce (FAO 2019). In light of these numbers, a substantial body of research has emerged that examines how to increase consumer acceptance of imperfect produce. The current literature conceptualizes imperfect food predominantly as fruits or vegetables that deviate in shape or color from prototypical produce yet are equally tasty, nutritious, and safe to consume (Grewal et al. 2019; Mookerjee, Cornil, and Hoegg 2021). Accordingly, previous studies have focused on objective esthetic flaws such as shape deformations or reduced freshness (e.g., misshaped potatoes, weathered cucumbers). This research examines a novel type of imperfection that has so far been overlooked by the current literature: when the produce has been torn off the bunch it normally comes in (e.g., bunched bananas, tomatoes on the vine) and thus deviates from consumer expectations regarding the presentation of produce at the point of sale. For instance, single bananas have been shown to account for the highest amount both of climate impact and of This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. © 2024 The Author(s). Psychology & Marketing published by Wiley Periodicals LLC. The first two authors contributed equally to this study. 669 of 950Psychology & Marketing, 2025; 42:669–683 https://doi.org/10.1002/mar.22145 food wasted at retailers (Mattsson, Williams, and Berghel 2018). Specifically, single bananas are much more likely to be discarded than their bunched counterparts if they are not sold by the end of the day such that current food waste avoidance practices explicitly list single bananas as a source of avoidable food waste (BCG 2024; EcoWorlder 2022; Rees 2023). Independent of the produce in question, one stream of literature has focused on anthropomorphism—ascribing human characteristics to nonhuman agents—as a potential solution for mitigating consumer rejection of imperfect food. These studies found positive effects of various forms of anthropomorphism on the evaluation and choice of imperfect food, including adding facial elements (Shao et al. 2020,2021; Walsh and Darriet 2020), reframing deformations as body parts (Cooremans and Geuens 2019), or mimicking human behavior (Koo, Oh, and Patrick 2019). Most relevant to the present research is prior work that has examined emotional expressions as a form of anthropomorphism. Existing studies have focused on the effect of depicting happy (T. Chen et al. 2021; Cooremans and Geuens 2019) or sad (Mukherjee, Mukherjee, and Iyer 2021) emotional expressions on imperfect produce. While happiness and sadness induce different affective and behavioral responses and have been shown to differ in effectiveness when used in marketing messaging in other domains (Ketron and Naletelich 2019; Small and Verrochi 2009), the current imperfect food literature lacks a direct comparison of the effectiveness of these emotions. Yet, the attributed capacity to experience emotions is a powerful indicator of perceived humanness, which warrants further investigation into the differential effects of happiness and sadness as primary emotions in anthropomorphism research. This research seeks to fill this research gap by explicitly comparing the effectiveness of happy and sad emotional expressions on anthropomorphized single produce in boosting choice of such produce. Our work has direct practical implications. Among different anthropomorphism forms, endowing imperfect produce with emotions via facial expressions is easily viable for many produce categories, making it an impactful yet cost‐effective intervention. Hence, generating insights into which emotion is most effective in boosting choice of single produce is highly relevant from a managerial perspective. Importantly, our work also shows how anthropomorphizing such produce interacts with another strategy typically used to promote such produce—price discounts—thereby providing retailers with clear guidelines on how to effectively communicate at the point of sale. 2 | Theoretical Background 2.1 | Anthropomorphism in Imperfect Food Anthropomorphism means imbuing “nonhuman agents with humanlike characteristics, motivations, intentions, or emotions”(Epley, Waytz, and Cacioppo 2007, p. 864), allowing individuals to draw on their knowledge regarding human agents to interpret and make sense of a nonhuman target (Epley, Waytz, and Cacioppo 2007). For instance, seeing a “face”in a nonhuman object allows individuals to evaluate it as if they would evaluate a human's face. Marketers intentionally incorporate anthropomorphism into their products to help consumers establish a humanlike connection with the product. While any type of anthropomorphism that involves some human component is conceivable, studied types include letting a product speak, letting a product engage in human behavior, orgivingaproductafacialexpression,whichhavebeen found to positively influence product evaluations (Aggarwal and McGill 2007), brand liking (Delbaere, McQuarrie, and Phillips 2011), and product sales (Landwehr, McGill, and Herrmann 2011), respectively. In the context of sustainability, anthropomorphism has not only been shown to positively influence environmental conservation behaviors such as resource use, product replacement, and recycling (Ahn, Kim, and Aggarwal 2014; Chandler and Schwarz 2010; Ketron and Naletelich 2019; Wu, Malter, and Johar 2023) but also to enhance evaluations and choice of imperfect produce—produce that deviates in appearance from what consumers consider typical. Similar to research on imperfect food in general (e.g., Grewal et al. 2019; Mookerjee, Cornil, and Hoegg 2021), existing studies in the domain of anthropomorphism have focused primarily on shape abnormalities or reduced freshness (see Table 1for an overview) as manifestations of imperfections. In particular, these studies found positive effects on purchase intention, willingness‐to‐pay, and product evaluations of such produce from a range of different anthropomorphism forms, including presenting oddly shaped fruit and vegetables with a humanlike smile (T. Chen et al. 2021) or sad facial features (Mukherjee, Mukherjee, and Iyer 2021), framing shape abnormalities as body parts (Cooremans and Geuens 2019), arranging old produce to resemble a human face or imitating human behavior (Koo, Oh, and Patrick 2019), and adding eyes as human facial features (Shao et al. 2020,2021; Walsh and Darriet 2020). We aim to add to this body of literature by examining “singleness”as another, currently understudied manifestation of imperfect produce. Specifically, we call fresh produce “single” when it is torn off the bunch it originally comes in and is usually presented in (e.g., bunched bananas, tomatoes on the vine) and conceptualize it as imperfect as it deviates from consumer expectations regarding how it should be presented at the point of sale (i.e., in its original bunched state). Studying such single produce is particularly relevant in the context of anthropomorphism as separation from peers reflects a fundamental human concern (Baumeister and Leary 1995). 2.2 | Emotional Expressions While the previously discussed body of research contributes to our understanding of the effectiveness of different forms of anthropomorphism, the impact of different emotions conveyed through anthropomorphism has received less attention. Signaling emotions and interpreting emotional expressions shape everyday social interactions. The face is considered the main nonverbal medium for communicating emotions and the 670 of 950 Psychology & Marketing, 2025 TABLE 1 | Overview of studies on anthropomorphism in selling imperfect produce (IP). Research Stimuli Independent variable Anthropomorphism through … Dependent variable(s) Process Moderator Study type Key results T. Chen et al. (2021) Typical/ misshapen potatoes/ carrots/ apples Anthropomorphism, type of anthropomorphism Happy face, text Purchase intention Empathy Product popularity Online Anthropomorphizing IP evokes consumer empathy due to rejection. Empathy increases acceptance and purchases of IP. Product popularity weakens the effect. Cooremans and Geuens (2019) Typical/ misshapen carrot/ tomato/ cucumber Product type (typical/ imperfect), anthropomorphism Happy face, adding “body parts” Purchase intention, choice, willingness‐ to‐pay Positive affective reactions, taste perceptions Environmental concern Lab, online Due to positive affective reactions that enhance taste perceptions, anthropomorphizing IP leads to higher purchase intentions and choice. This effect is weaker for consumers high on environmental concerns. Koo, Oh, and Patrick (2019) Fresh/ weathered/ spotted cucumber/ banana/zuc‐ chini (Im)perfection, anthropomorphism Arranging elements to resemble neutral human face, IP engaging in typical human behavior (sunbathing) Produce evaluation Feelings of warmth Lay beliefs about aging Lab, online Anthropomorphizing old produce increases evaluation due to enhanced feelings of warmth, contingent on “old is gold”beliefs. Mukherjee, Mukherjee, and Iyer (2021) (Study 2) “An assortment of both fruits and vegetables” (Im)perfection, anthropomorphism “sad faces that mimic human facial features” Purchase intention, retailer patronage intention Feelings of embarrassment —Online Anthropomorphism increases purchase intention and retailer patronage intention due to decreased feelings of embarrassment when purchasing IP. Shao et al. (2020) Misshaped potato Anthropomorphism Eyes, neutral beak, hat, text Purchase intention —Temporal distance, message framing Online Anthropomorphism increases purchase intention towards IP. Gain‐framed messages are more effective when set in the distant future, (Continues) 671 of 950 TABLE 1 | (Continued) Research Stimuli Independent variable Anthropomorphism through … Dependent variable(s) Process Moderator Study type Key results while loss‐framed messages are more effective when described in the near future. Shao, Jeong, and Jang (2021) Misshaped potato Anthropomorphism Eyes, neutral beak, hat, text Purchase intention —Gender, age Online In the younger age group, female consumers' purchase intention towards IP is positively influenced by anthropomorphism while men's is not. The positive effect applies to both genders in the older age group. Walsh and Darriet (2020) Misshaped lemon Anthropomorphism Googly eyes Willingness‐ to‐pay ——Online Participants were willing to pay more for oddly shaped lemons in the anthropomorphized/ whimsical condition compared to those in the control condition. This research Single/ bunched bananas/ tomatoes Anthropomorphized facial expression/ emotion Happy versus sad face, text Choice Compassion Price discount, cognitive load Field, online Anthropomorphized sadness is more effective in driving consumers' choice of single IP than happiness or no anthropomorphism. The effect (sad vs. happy) is mediated by compassion and eliminated in the presence of a price discount (sad vs. control). 672 of 950 Psychology & Marketing, 2025 literature has particularly focused on studying primary emotions (e.g., happiness and sadness), which are universally conveyed through distinct facial expressions (Keltner et al. 2003). Importantly, previous work has found that the capacity to experience emotions (e.g., joy) has a stronger effect on people's perception of what it means to have a mind—and thus, be human—than the capacity to act (e.g., planning; Gray, Gray, and Wegner 2007). Hence, studying conveyed emotions (e.g., via “facial”expressions) is directly relevant in the context of anthropomorphism. However, recent research on anthropomorphizing imperfect produce has either not used specific emotions (Koo, Oh, and Patrick 2019; Shao et al. 2020,2021; Walsh and Darriet 2020), used happy expressions only (T. Chen et al. 2021; Cooremans and Geuens 2019), or used sad expressions only (Mukherjee, Mukherjee, and Iyer 2021). To our knowledge, no prior research has explicitly tested whether conveying happy or sad emotional expressions is more effective in increasing consumer choice of imperfect food. Yet, a direct comparison of the effect of happy and sad emotional expressions seems highly relevant in this context, as the primary emotions of happiness and sadness can be understood as opposites (Feldman Barrett and Russell 1998) and are thus likely to evoke different affective and behavioral responses. Specifically, we propose that the extent to which anthropomorphism affects consumer preferences for single produce is stronger for sad than for happy emotions. Overall, previous research has demonstrated that conveying sad emotions is effective in increasing message compliance across various domains, including prosocial behavior (Bagozzi and Moore 1994), environmental conservation (Ahn, Kim, and Aggarwal 2014; Ketron and Naletelich 2019), and food choices (Choueiki, Geuens, and Vermeir 2021). More importantly, there is empirical evidence that conveying sadness is more effective in direct comparison with conveying happiness. For instance, Small and Verrochi (2009) showed that donation appeals were more effective when the victims portrayed in these appeals exhibited sad rather than happy emotions. Additionally, Ketron and Naletelich (2019) tested happy and sad anthropomorphic cues and, while finding no differences between the emotions themselves, uncovered that consumers are more likely to comply with environmental appeals when being exposed to sad versus no anthropomorphic cues in the decision context. Similarly, a product featuring a sad expression may instill an urge to save the product from its “misery,”leading to a higher purchase likelihood. Conversely, a product with a happy expression may be perceived as being content in its context. As a result, consumers are less likely to experience a need for action and may thus be less inclined to buy that product. Hence, H1. Depicting a sad (vs.happy or no)emotional expression on single produce increases customer choice of that produce. 2.3 | Mediation by Compassion As theorized in the previous section, happy and sad emotional expressions on imperfect food should influence consumer behavior differently as they elicit different affective responses. For happy expressions, past research in the domain of imperfect food has shown that imbuing imperfect produce with a smiling “face”leads to higher feelings of warmth compared to when the produce is not anthropomorphized (T. Chen et al. 2021; Cooremans and Geuens 2019). Similarly, Koo, Oh, and Patrick (2019) argue that the effect of anthropomorphizing old produce stems from “sentimental feelings of warmth”(p. 348). Warmth perception is a primary determinant of person perception and evaluation and reflects how well‐intentioned, friendly, and trustworthy a person appears (Fiske, Cuddy, and Glick 2007; Wojciszke 2005). Essentially, these studies argue that anthropomorphizing an imperfect product activates a positive human schema, which, in turn, elicits a positive affective reaction (see also Aggarwal and McGill 2007). For sad expressions, anthropomorphism is likely to lead to feelings distinct from warmth. Witnessing sadness in others is likely to evoke compassionate responses, particularly in the context of social exclusion. The need to belong is one of the most basic human motivations (Baumeister and Leary 1995) such that people perceive being involuntarily separated from peers as aversive. We follow the compassion conceptualization by Goetz, Keltner, and Simon‐Thomas (2010) who define compassion as “the feeling that arises in witnessing another's suffering and that motivates a subsequent desire to help”(p. 2) and who consider similar constructs such as sympathy, pity, and empathic concern as a family of compassion‐related states that share the central desire to alleviate another's suffering. Indeed, prior research has demonstrated that such concern for others is associated with increased helping behavior (e.g., Dovidio, Allen, and Schroeder 1990). Accordingly, consumers exposed to a single produce conveying sadness are likely to experience compassion, which will translate into a desire to ameliorate the product's suffering. As the compassion evoked by sad expressions—in contrast to the warmth evoked by happy expressions—should thus trigger an immediate behavioral impulse to “help”(i.e., buy) the produce, the effect of anthropomorphizing single produce on consumer choice should be stronger for sad expressions than for happy expressions: H2. The effect of depicting sad emotional expressions of single produce on choice of such produce is mediated by compassion. 2.4 | Cognitive Load and Price Discounts as Potential Moderators Based on our proposed mechanism through compassion, we examined both a consumer‐related and a context‐related moderator with high practical relevance that might attenuate this process in a shopping context. We focused on cognitive load as a consumer‐related moderator as several studies have documented that the availability of cognitive resources impacts decision‐making (e.g., Greene et al. 2008; Hinson, Jameson, and Whitney 2003). According to cognitive load theory (Sweller 2011), the working memory has limited capacity for processing information. When this capacity is exceeded, processing information can become impaired. 673 of 950 Accordingly, consumers' cognitive load might influence the effectiveness of anthropomorphizing imperfect produce at the point of sale. On the one hand, experiencing compassion in response to a sad product may require sufficient cognitive resources (Goetz, Keltner, and Simon‐Thomas 2010), such that the difference between happy and sad expressions may either disappear under high load or reverse given that happy anthropomorphism can be decoded under high cognitive load. On the other hand, consumers might experience a spontaneous, gut‐level response (Rameson, Morelli, and Lieberman 2012) when exposed to an imperfect product expressing sadness, suggesting that the effect of sad expressions is robust across different levels of cognitive load. Hence, while we hypothesized that a sad emotion depicted on single produce would increase choice more than a happy emotion under low cognitive load, we did not hypothesize a specific direction of the effect for high cognitive load but specified different possible patterns of results as follows: H3. Depicting sad (vs.happy)emotions on anthropomorphized single produce is more effective in increasing customer choice of that produce under low cognitive load.Under high cognitive load, different patterns of effects are theoretically plausible (i.e., sad is more than,less than,or equally effective as happy). In addition to examining cognitive load, we focused on price discounts as an external, context‐related moderator. Price discounts are the promotional tool most frequently used by marketers (Darke and Chung 2005) and the main strategy to boost sales of imperfect food (Grewal et al. 2019). Hence, it is important to understand how discounts interact with our proposed anthropomorphism intervention. Previous research has demonstrated that introducing price discounts can undermine other interventions targeted at promoting imperfect food by signaling its lower quality (Mookerjee, Cornil, and Hoegg 2021). More importantly, reminders of money have been shown to prime a self‐sufficient orientation, making people dislike dependencies and thus less likely to help others (Vohs, Mead, and Goode 2006). Consequently, when the concept of money is activated by the presence of a price discount, consumers should be less susceptible to an emotionalized message asking the consumer to “help”(i.e., buy) an imperfect product. Accordingly, we argue that introducing price discounts should weaken the compassion evoked by sad emotional expressions on imperfect food, making the sad anthropomorphism intervention less effective: H4. Depicting sad emotions on anthropomorphized single produce increases customer choice of that produce when no price discount is present.In the presence of a price discount,the effect is mitigated. 2.5 | Empirical Overview We conducted four empirical studies (see Figure 1for our conceptual model). We first test the real‐life relevance of our key proposition in a field experiment, where we observe actual purchase behavior (Study 1). We then explore the underlying process via compassion (Study 2) and examine cognitive load and price discount as potential moderators (Studies 3 and 4) in the controlled environment of online experiments. All studies were preregistered and received ethical institutional peer approval. We report the study protocols for our experiments and additional analyses in Supporting Information S1: Appendices Aand B, respectively. The data sets, statistical code, and stimuli of all studies are available on the Open Science Framework: https://osf.io/8k6pb/. 3 | Study 1: Field Experiment Study 1 (preregistered: https://aspredicted.org/t98d-kr74.pdf and https://aspredicted.org/4ddx-rqz9.pdf) 1 was conducted in collaboration with a major German supermarket chain and tested the effect of different emotional expressions in a field setting by observing actual purchase behavior of single bananas. 3.1 | Method The experiment was conducted on 8 days for 12 h each in two supermarkets of the same chain, yielding 192 h of data collection. In the supermarkets, single bananas are placed in a separate basket next to the bunch bananas. To test how consumers' choices differed across different types of anthropomorphizing, FIGURE 1 | Conceptual model. 674 of 950 Psychology & Marketing, 2025 we installed three different signs (control, happy, sad) next to these baskets. The two anthropomorphized conditions were based on existing research on facial expressions and emotions (e.g., Bassili 1979; Ekman 1993). In the happy (sad) condition, the sign featured a single banana with a smile (downward‐ sloped mouth) and the information “We are happy (sad) singles and want to be bought as well.”In the control condition, the sign only displayed the non‐emotionalized information “Here are single bananas that want to be bought as well.”Following Mookerjee, Cornil, and Hoegg (2021), the signs were rotated every hour to minimize weekday and daytime interferences. When changing the signs, we counted the overall number of single bananas taken (i.e., sold) in the last hour. To keep the number of bananas in the basket constant, the basket was refilled after each counting when required. Additionally, we watched the customers from a hidden spot in the store and recorded whether they chose the single or the bunch bananas and how many single bananas they chose. These three measures (number of single bananas sold in the last hour, binary choice of single bananas per customer, number of single bananas taken per customer) served as our key dependent variables. We also recorded the number of customers passing the banana shelves in each hour and whether other bananas were on sale as control variables. Importantly, the single bananas were not sold at a discount or as the cheapest option available, as this might have implied a lower product quality. Instead, they were sold at 1.99 €/kg (i.e., the same price as organic and branded bunches, and 0.84 €/kg more expensive than the chain's cheapest private label). 3.2 | Results and Discussion Because the stimuli and rotation scheme were the same across both supermarkets, we pooled the data for analysis. Across the entire timeframe of the study (i.e., 192 1‐h time slots), a total of 3,810 customers purchased bananas (N control = 1226, N happy = 1283, N sad = 1301). We had to exclude one time slot (in which 16 customers bought bananas) because the number of purchased single bananas during this time slot was a severe outlier (i.e., five SDs above the mean). This spike was due to a shortage of bunch bananas in one of the branches, thereby driving sales of single bananas. Hence, we do not consider this time slot representative and focus on the remaining 191 time slots and 3794 customers for further analysis. Nevertheless, we also conducted the analysis without excluding this outlier as a robustness check (see Supporting Information S1: Appendix B). 3.2.1 | Number of Single Bananas Sold Per Time Slot To test whether the number of single bananas sold per hour differed depending on the emotion displayed on the sign, we conducted a one‐way ANOVA using the aggregated data on the level of the time slots. As expected, this analysis revealed a significant effect for the experimental manipulation (F(2, 188) = 3.59, p= 0.030, η 2 = 0.037). Subsequent planned contrasts revealed a significant difference in sales between the control (M control = 2.02, SD control = 2.31) and sad condition (M sad = 3.19, SD sad = 3.24; p= 0.016), while there was no significant difference between the control and the happy condition (M happy = 2.13, SD happy = 2.55; p= 0.818). Moreover, the difference between the happy and the sad condition was significant (p= 0.030). This pattern of results remains robust when including the number of customers passing the banana shelves, branch, weekday, timeslot, and whether other bananas were on sale as control variables (see Supporting Information S1: Appendix B). 3.2.2 | Choice of Single Bananas Per Customer We used the disaggregated data, that is, the customers as the unit of analysis (N= 3,794), and observed whether each customer bought single bananas (= 1) or not (= 0). A χ 2 test indicated a significant difference in the proportion of customers purchasing single bananas across conditions (sad: 7%, happy: 5%, control: 4%; χ 2 (2) = 10.33, p= 0.006, φ c = 0.052) and logistic regressions replicated the finding that the odds of buying single bananas are higher in the sad condition than in the happy condition (b= 0.38, p= 0.025) and the control condition (b= 0.53, p= 0.003). 3.2.3 | Number of Single Bananas Taken Per Customer Again using the customers as the unit of analysis, we conducted a one‐way ANOVA with the displayed emotion as the independent variable and the number of single bananas taken as the dependent variable. Again, a significant main effect of emotion is revealed (F(2, 3791) = 3.28, p< 0.038, η 2 = 0.002) and contrast analyses indicate significant differences between the sad and the happy conditions (M sad = 0.16, SD sad = 0.66; M happy = 0.11, SD happy = 0.51; p= 0.027) as well as between the sad and the control condition (M control = 0.11, SD control = 0.57; p= 0.027). Taken together, we find evidence across all dependent variables that depicting sad emotional expressions on single bananas is more effective in increasing choice of such produce than depicting happy or no emotional expression (H1). 4 | Study 2: Mediation by Compassion Study 2 (preregistered: https://aspredicted.org/5xqn-47x2.pdf) 2 was an online experiment to examine the process underlying choice of single produce. We hypothesized that the effect of sad anthropomorphism but not that of happy anthropomorphism would be mediated by compassion (H2). As in the field experiment, we used single (vs. bunched) bananas as our stimuli. 4.1 | Method In total, 754 US CloudResearch participants (49.1% female, 49.9% male, 1.0% other; M age = 40.88) completed a one‐factorial (product anthropomorphism: control, happy, sad) between‐ subjects experiment. Participants were shown a picture of a supermarket shelf with single bananas on the left and banana 675 of 950 bunches on the right side (see Figure 2). Apart from being separated from the bunch, the single bananas were not abnormal in terms of shape, color, or size. The displayed signs were similar to those used in Study 1, except that we depicted a non‐ humanized banana in the control condition to make it more similar to the other conditions and added tears to the sad banana to make the emotion more salient (see Figure 2). Participants were asked to imagine going to the supermarket intending to buy bananas and to indicate whether they would take bananas from the left (single) or right (bunch) side of the display (1 = definitely from the left side, 6 = definitely from the right side), which served as our dependent variable (reverse‐ scored such that higher numbers indicated a higher likelihood of choosing single bananas). Next, participants indicated their compassion for the single bananas (“I feel pity towards the bananas,”“I feel concern for the bananas,”“I feel sympathy towards the bananas”; 1 = not at all, 6 = very much, α= 0.96; Jackson and LePine 2003) and responded to our anthropomorphism manipulation check (“How strongly do the bananas on the left side remind you of a human being?”;“How strongly do the bananas on the right side remind you of a human being?”; both ranging from 1 = not at all, 6 = very much). Although not central to our theorizing, participants also indicated to what extent they felt warmth towards the single bananas as initially preregistered (see Supporting Information S1: Appendix B). Participants then responded to an attention check (“What product was depicted in the shelf?,”1 = banana, 2 = cucumber, 3 = beef) and a set of control variables, including taste and freshness perceptions of the bananas, whether they had seen products as depicted on the left side of the shelf before, how important it is to them to consume fresh fruits and vegetables, how concerned they are with the environment, whether they rate the term “single”as rather positive or negative, and what their relationship status is (see Supporting Information S1: Appendix A). 4.2 | Results and Discussion 4.2.1 | Attention Check All participants passed the attention check so that we retained all participants for analysis. 4.2.2 | Manipulation Check As intended, the manipulation check for the perceived humanness of the single bananas was significant (F(2, 751) = 13.82, p< 0.001, η 2 = 0.036). The single bananas were perceived as significantly more human in the happy (M happy = 2.68, SD happy = 1.70; p< 0.001) and the sad conditions (M sad = 2.71, SD sad = 1.72; p< 0.001) relative to the control condition (M control = 2.03, SD control = 1.51). There was no difference across the two anthropomorphized conditions (p= 0.872). Furthermore, as expected, the perceived humanness of the bunch bananas did not differ across the conditions (F(2, 751) = 1.05, p= 0.351, η 2 = 0.003; M control = 1.88, SD control = 1.49; M happy = 1.95, SD happy = 1.43; M sad = 1.77, SD sad = 1.23). 4.2.3 | Choice Figure 3provides means for the dependent variable choice and the mediator variable compassion. An ANOVA revealed a significant main effect of the experimental manipulation on choice FIGURE 2 | Experimental conditions and stimuli of Study 2. 676 of 950 Psychology & Marketing, 2025 Small, D. A., and N. M. 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