Food sampling at retail stores and restaurants (e.g., amuse bouche) is a widespread practice. These food samples vary considerably in healthfulness levels. Prior research has primarily focused on the effects of sampling on evaluations and sales of the sampled item. However, can there be unintended consequences of sampling a healthy versus an unhealthy item on subsequent purchases of other food items? Also, would the degree of dissimilarity between the sampled item and subsequent options moderate the effects? The results from a series of experiments, including four studies conducted in field settings, show that sampling a healthy (vs. unhealthy) item paradoxically leads to greater subsequent purchase/choice of unhealthy foods – but only when consumers perceive a relatively high level of dissimilarity between the sampled item and subsequent options. This effect reverses when the sampled food and subsequent options are perceived as being relatively low on dissimilarity (i.e., high on similarity).

零售店和餐馆的食品取样（例如开胃小菜）是一种普遍的做法。这些食品样本的健康水平差异很大。先前的研究主要集中在抽样对抽样项目的评估和销售的影响。然而，在随后购买其他食品时，对健康食品和不健康食品进行取样是否会产生意想不到的后果？此外，抽样项目与后续选项之间的差异程度是否会减轻影响？一系列实验（包括在实地环境中进行的四项研究）的结果表明，对健康（与不健康）食品进行抽样反而会导致随后更多地购买/选择不健康食品——但前提是消费者感知到的差异程度相对较高采样项和后续选项之间。当采样的食物和随后的选项被认为相异性相对较低（即相似性较高）时，这种效应就会逆转。