Consumers frequently engage in experiences (e.g., listening to music) in the presence of delicious food. Ten studies show that the presence (vs. absence) of such food decreases the enjoyment of a concurrent (target) experience across a wide array of consumption activities, such as listening to music, evaluating pictures, and coloring. The presence (vs. absence) of food prompts mental imagery of consuming that food, which decreases engagement with the target experience, resulting in lower enjoyment. Consistent with prior work on mental imagery, the effect only occurs for food that is considered tasty; when a food’s functional benefits are highlighted, the effect disappears. In addition, the effect can be triggered in the absence of food when participants are explicitly instructed to engage in mental imagery. The role of engagement is demonstrated by showing that the valence of the target experience moderates this effect, such that the presence of food decreases enjoyment of positive experiences, but increases enjoyment of negative experiences. The work contributes to past research on mental imagery and delayed consumption by highlighting the need to focus on how the presence of food affects concurrent experiences, and provides important managerial insights given the proliferation of tasty food to enhance customer experience.

消费者经常在有美味食物的情况下进行体验（例如听音乐）。十项研究表明，这种食物的存在（相对于缺少）会降低人们在广泛的消费活动（例如听音乐，评估图片和着色）中同时享受（目标）体验的乐趣。食物的存在（相对于缺少）会促使人们对食用该食物的心理印象，这会降低与目标体验的互动度，从而导致娱乐性降低。与先前有关心理意象的研究一致，这种影响仅在被认为是美味的食物时才会发生；当突出一种食品的功能优势时，效果就消失了。另外，当明确指示参与者进行心理想象时，可以在没有食物的情况下触发这种效果。参与的作用通过表明目标体验的效价减轻了这种影响而得到证明，因此食物的存在会减少正面体验的享受，但会增加负面体验的享受。这项工作通过强调需要重点关注食物的存在如何影响并发体验而为过去关于心理意象和延迟消费的研究做出了贡献，并且鉴于美味食物的泛滥以增强客户体验，还提供了重要的管理见解。