This research studies the effect of asking consumers “Why?” vs. “Why not?” prior to a food choice on construal level and virtue-vice food choice. The research builds on Construal and linguistic framing. It assumes that “Why?” promotes abstract thinking to achieve goals and “Why Not?” promotes more concrete thinking through negation and focus on the situa-tion. An online experiment with 188 participants was carried out using a between-subjects design. Participants were randomly assigned to one of the two framing conditions and then made a choice between a virtue option, salad, and a vice option, chocolate cake. The study tested whether question framing influences cognitive abstraction and whether construal level mediates the effect of framing on food choice. The framing manipulation did not significantly affect construal level. It also did not produce a significant difference in food choice. Both conditions showed concrete-dominant thinking.
However, construal level was an exceptionally strong predictor of virtue–vice choice. More abstract construal was associated with salad choice, while more concrete construal was associated with cake choice. These findings suggest that brief question framing may be too weak to shift cognition in a vivid food-choice context. They also show that construal level is highly relevant to consumer decision-making.

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