When evaluating food products, consumers rely on visual cues on packages to infer their healthiness and tastiness. We assumed that color, specifically color saturation, is one such cue, similarly relevant for both healthiness and tastiness inferences. We conducted three studies in which we manipulated the color of pictures of product packages. Participants viewed pictures from the category of snacks (Study 1a) and drinks (Studies 1b and 2), available at a supermarketʼs online store and rated each product on the dimensions of healthiness and tastiness. In two studies, we showed one group of participants product pictures only as grayscale images, whereas another group viewed the pictures in full color. In a third study, we showed participants product pictures once with increased and once with decreased color saturation. We consistently found a positive correlation between healthiness and tastiness.Presenting pictures of products as grayscale images weakened the healthy-tasty correlation. Products with increased compared with decreased color saturation were rated as both healthier and tastier, mediated by the products' perceived freshness.
Most recent epidemics have originated in complex human-nature interactions and yet, our knowledge is very limited regarding the psychological aspects of humannature relationships that underlie individual human responses in times of pandemic crises. We propose that the concept of connectedness with nature and associated individual difference measures offer a relevant and useful lens to inform us about how humans think, feel and behave in such critical times. Our two-wave study, conducted with 486 United States residents at the end of March 2020 (wave 1) and 533 United States residents at the beginning of May 2020 (wave 2), focuses on the 2020 coronavirus situation. It maps individual responses to the current pandemic in terms of mental representations, behavioral tendencies and perceived impact, and explores the relationships of these constructs to individual levels of connectedness with nature. As this research employs an exploratory methodology, our results provide an account of potential relationships rather than their validation and thus represent an encouraging steppingstone for research on human behavior in the time of a global pandemic. We identify a series of research propositions and questions for systematic future inquiry.
The aim of traffic light labels on food products is to help consumers assess their healthiness. However, it is not clear whether traffic light labels do not have undesired side effects by signaling lower tastiness of healthy product alternatives and reducing purchase intentions. We therefore conducted a study with consumers from Austria (N = 173) in which we presented the amount of sugar contained in products on labels with or without traffic light colors based on the coding criteria of the UK Food Standards Agency. Expectations of products’ healthiness and tastiness, as well as purchase intentions were assessed. The products were randomly sampled from the category of desserts from a supermarket. The declared amount of sugar was experimentally varied. The traffic light labels helped participants differentiate between the healthiness of products with different sugar levels. They did not affect the expected tastiness of the healthier alternatives. Moreover, participants did not report lower purchase intentions for products high in sugar, but a higher purchase intention for products low in sugar when traffic light colors were used compared to when they were not used.
To address the growing health awareness of consumers, the food industry designs novel food alternatives, which are similar but not identical to existing foods (e.g., meat-reduced or plant-based burgers). The idea is that consumers can continue to eat their preferred kind of food and still follow a healthy diet. However, we argue that it is too short-sighted to hope that positive similarities to existing products help to increase purchase intentions, because consumers often focus on distinct attributes of new products and neglect the positive attributes shared by existing and novel food alternatives. We tested our hypotheses in six studies in which participants provided or received attributes for classic food products and novel alternatives with substituted ingredients to make them healthier. We observed that consumers perceive the distinguishing attributes between a classic product and its novel, healthier alternative to be predominantly negative, whereas they perceive most shared attributes to be positive. Moreover, we found the predicted neglect of shared attributes in the formation of taste expectations and purchase intentions. In the conclusion, we put forward that the observed evaluation bias can impede the success of novel food alternatives and discuss possible ways to overcome this disadvantage.
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