The influence of positive and negative cues on restaurant food choice and food acceptance

Food servers are often in a unique position to influence what customers choose, which in turn may affect their enjoyment of that food. The purpose of this study, therefore, was to evaluate the influence of positive and negative comments made by servers on food choice and acceptance.

Customers using a public university restaurant were “assisted” in their food choice by a server making either a positive, negative or no statement as to the popularity of a selected dish. At the end of the meal, diners were then asked to rate the acceptability of the dish chosen using a nine‐point hedonic scale.

Results show that only negative statements made by servers actually influence food choice but in all conditions, once a customer had chosen, acceptability of that dish was not affected.

This research was undertaken in a public restaurant where the servers are students. It could be argued that customers being aware of this responded accordingly, although there was no evidence to support this.

The service encounter is perhaps one of the most important elements that distinguish products from services, and it is here that businesses can succeed or fail. This paper contributes towards our understanding of that encounter.