Meeting 7: food packaging and
labelling
SOURCE: BELEI
ABSTRACT
Objective: examine whether the nature of the health claim attached to an indulgence affects
consumption of the indulgence. Health claims that stress a functional attribute and health claims that
stress a hedonic attribute are compared.
Hypothesis: health claims featuring functional attributes trigger high levels of health-goal
accessibility, which, together with simultaneously accessible indulgence goals attached to the
indulgence, results in goal conflict. This conflict leads to reduced consumption of the food. In
contrast, health claims featuring hedonic attributes render health goals less accessible while
accentuating the pleasure dimension of the food, resulting in lower goal conflict and increased
consumption of the food accepted!
Consumers have a reluctance to eat unhealthy food as they attempt to live healthy. Consumers are
demanding for food that combines ‘the best of both worlds’, delicious/indulgent food with a healthy
twist that takes away the guilt. Two characteristics of healthful indulgences:
- Improved version of generally unhealthful product which are primarily consumed for
pleasure/taste.
- Carry a claim that explicitly/implicitly suggests that the food is more healthful than the
original version. The claims stress:
o Presence of beneficial food attributes (vitamins, calcium etc.)
o Absence/decrease of detrimental attributes (sugar, fat etc.)
o Functional attributes considered nourishing/healthful (antioxidants, cholesterol etc.)
o Hedonic attributes considered fun/enjoyable (fat etc.)
Conceptual framework
- Decision making processes: people often use heuristics, which means processing only using a
subset of relevant information. Using heuristics allows for easy justification but can lead to
decision errors, for instance in decisions of whether to indulge or refrain from tempting food.
Consumers tend to overgeneralize benefits associated with nutrition based claims.
- Perspectives on health claims on indulgences:
o Consumption stimulating cue: indulgences framed as healthy stimulate food intake
instead of triggering self-control.
o Unhealthy = tasty intuition: an increasing degree of functionality is associated with a
decrease in hedonic potential, thus suggesting that hedonic and functional attributes
are negatively correlated. So, the more healthful a food is portrayed, the less
enjoyable it is perceived to be. Thus a decreased consumption of healthful
indulgences.
o Nuanced perspective: the consumed amount of indulgences framed as healthful
depends on the nature of the attribute the claims emphasize. People categorize food
generally in a good/bad dichotomy. An indulgence goal becomes highly accessible
, when people are exposed to tempting food, this goal is either in high or low conflict
with other goals depending on the nature of food claims.
Claims featuring functional food attributes: associated with “health” (e.g.,
low cholesterol, vitamins, antioxidants, calcium) and make the concept of
health highly accessible in consumers’ minds conflict
Claim featuring hedonic food attributes: associated with the food’s tastiness
(e.g., fat, sugar) should direct attention to the hedonic qualities of the food,
rendering a health goal less accessible no conflict
Goal conflict is an aversive state that consumers usually try to resolve by
dissociating themselves from the object causing the conflict.
Studies
Study 1
Objective: test whether health claims attached to indulgences differing in the nature of the attributes
emphasized (i.e., hedonic vs. functional) have differential effects on foods’ consumption.
Method: three conditions, participants evaluate products with questions (the claims were pre-tested)
- Functional attribute condition: chocolate product package with the health claim;
“antioxidants— health from the cacao bean.”
- Hedonic attribute condition: chocolate package with a low-fat label.
- Control condition: version of the chocolate package without health-related cues.
After this, two bowls with chocolate pearls were placed in front of them, all participants rated the
product on taste, colour and structure.
Independent variable: health claim manipulation
Dependent variable: grams of chocolate pearls consumed
Results:
- Participants in hedonic attribute condition consumed significantly more chocolate than
participants in the control condition. Participants in the functional-attribute condition
consumed significantly fewer chocolate pearls compared to the control condition.
- There was no significant difference in perceived taste across three conditions.
- There was no significant difference in people’s intention to purchase the chocolate across
three conditions.
Study 2
Objective: provide insight into the underlying processes involved with different consumption
patterns. Specifically test if functional attributes in a health claim result in higher levels of health-goal
activation than hedonic attributes, while having no differential effects on indulgence-goal activation.
Method:
- Health claim manipulation: same as study 1.
- Measurement goal activation: lexical decision task in which faster recognition of target words
(health and indulgence) signified the activation of goals.
Results:
- No difference in reaction time to indulgence words across all conditions, suggesting similar
accessible indulgence goals across conditions.
- No difference in reaction time to neutral words across all conditions.
- The antioxidants claim made health-related words relatively more accessible than the low-fat
claim in comparison to control condition.
labelling
SOURCE: BELEI
ABSTRACT
Objective: examine whether the nature of the health claim attached to an indulgence affects
consumption of the indulgence. Health claims that stress a functional attribute and health claims that
stress a hedonic attribute are compared.
Hypothesis: health claims featuring functional attributes trigger high levels of health-goal
accessibility, which, together with simultaneously accessible indulgence goals attached to the
indulgence, results in goal conflict. This conflict leads to reduced consumption of the food. In
contrast, health claims featuring hedonic attributes render health goals less accessible while
accentuating the pleasure dimension of the food, resulting in lower goal conflict and increased
consumption of the food accepted!
Consumers have a reluctance to eat unhealthy food as they attempt to live healthy. Consumers are
demanding for food that combines ‘the best of both worlds’, delicious/indulgent food with a healthy
twist that takes away the guilt. Two characteristics of healthful indulgences:
- Improved version of generally unhealthful product which are primarily consumed for
pleasure/taste.
- Carry a claim that explicitly/implicitly suggests that the food is more healthful than the
original version. The claims stress:
o Presence of beneficial food attributes (vitamins, calcium etc.)
o Absence/decrease of detrimental attributes (sugar, fat etc.)
o Functional attributes considered nourishing/healthful (antioxidants, cholesterol etc.)
o Hedonic attributes considered fun/enjoyable (fat etc.)
Conceptual framework
- Decision making processes: people often use heuristics, which means processing only using a
subset of relevant information. Using heuristics allows for easy justification but can lead to
decision errors, for instance in decisions of whether to indulge or refrain from tempting food.
Consumers tend to overgeneralize benefits associated with nutrition based claims.
- Perspectives on health claims on indulgences:
o Consumption stimulating cue: indulgences framed as healthy stimulate food intake
instead of triggering self-control.
o Unhealthy = tasty intuition: an increasing degree of functionality is associated with a
decrease in hedonic potential, thus suggesting that hedonic and functional attributes
are negatively correlated. So, the more healthful a food is portrayed, the less
enjoyable it is perceived to be. Thus a decreased consumption of healthful
indulgences.
o Nuanced perspective: the consumed amount of indulgences framed as healthful
depends on the nature of the attribute the claims emphasize. People categorize food
generally in a good/bad dichotomy. An indulgence goal becomes highly accessible
, when people are exposed to tempting food, this goal is either in high or low conflict
with other goals depending on the nature of food claims.
Claims featuring functional food attributes: associated with “health” (e.g.,
low cholesterol, vitamins, antioxidants, calcium) and make the concept of
health highly accessible in consumers’ minds conflict
Claim featuring hedonic food attributes: associated with the food’s tastiness
(e.g., fat, sugar) should direct attention to the hedonic qualities of the food,
rendering a health goal less accessible no conflict
Goal conflict is an aversive state that consumers usually try to resolve by
dissociating themselves from the object causing the conflict.
Studies
Study 1
Objective: test whether health claims attached to indulgences differing in the nature of the attributes
emphasized (i.e., hedonic vs. functional) have differential effects on foods’ consumption.
Method: three conditions, participants evaluate products with questions (the claims were pre-tested)
- Functional attribute condition: chocolate product package with the health claim;
“antioxidants— health from the cacao bean.”
- Hedonic attribute condition: chocolate package with a low-fat label.
- Control condition: version of the chocolate package without health-related cues.
After this, two bowls with chocolate pearls were placed in front of them, all participants rated the
product on taste, colour and structure.
Independent variable: health claim manipulation
Dependent variable: grams of chocolate pearls consumed
Results:
- Participants in hedonic attribute condition consumed significantly more chocolate than
participants in the control condition. Participants in the functional-attribute condition
consumed significantly fewer chocolate pearls compared to the control condition.
- There was no significant difference in perceived taste across three conditions.
- There was no significant difference in people’s intention to purchase the chocolate across
three conditions.
Study 2
Objective: provide insight into the underlying processes involved with different consumption
patterns. Specifically test if functional attributes in a health claim result in higher levels of health-goal
activation than hedonic attributes, while having no differential effects on indulgence-goal activation.
Method:
- Health claim manipulation: same as study 1.
- Measurement goal activation: lexical decision task in which faster recognition of target words
(health and indulgence) signified the activation of goals.
Results:
- No difference in reaction time to indulgence words across all conditions, suggesting similar
accessible indulgence goals across conditions.
- No difference in reaction time to neutral words across all conditions.
- The antioxidants claim made health-related words relatively more accessible than the low-fat
claim in comparison to control condition.
