Health Halo Effects of Values-based Food Claims.

Halo Effect;Food Labeling;Organic;Fair Trade;Ethical Claims;Calorie Estimation;Psychology;Social Sciences (General);Science;Social Sciences;Psychology

Schuldt, Jonathon P.Rick, Scott Ian ;

University of Michigan

关键词: Halo Effect;    Food Labeling;    Organic;    Fair Trade;    Ethical Claims;    Calorie Estimation;    Psychology;    Social Sciences (General);    Science;    Social Sciences;    Psychology;   

Others  :  https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/handle/2027.42/86306/jschuldt_1.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y

瑞士|英语

来源: The Illinois Digital Environment for Access to Learning and Scholarship

【 摘 要 】

When judging nutritional aspects of foods, perceivers tend to overgeneralize from one;;healthy” nutrition claim (e.g., ;;no cholesterol”) by assuming that foods feature otherhealthy attributes as well (e.g., low in fat). This finding has been discussed in terms of theclassic halo effect in person perception, whereby impressions from strongly valencedattributes (e.g., social warmth) evoke similarly valenced evaluations of the target personon other attributes (e.g., sociability). Despite their popularity and health associations,scant research has explored whether claims like ;;organic” and ;;fair trade”—known asvalues-based claims—can similarly bias judgment. This dissertation explores thispossibility. Specifically, despite being silent on nutrient content, values-based claims andother ethics-related production qualities (e.g., favorable worker treatment) are expected topromote unwarranted health inferences (e.g., reduced calorie estimates), especially whenthese qualities are personally relevant (i.e., strongly congruent or incongruent withperceivers’ personal values). Five experimental studies find support for this prediction.Describing cookies as ;;organic” decreases calorie judgments and thereby increasesconsumption recommendations, an effect that is larger among the pro-environmental(Studies 1 and 2). Extending to the social ethics domain, describing chocolate as ;;fairtrade”decreases calorie judgments; moreover, socially unethical production increasescalorie judgments, among perceivers reporting high ethical food values (Studies 3 and 4).Exploring effects on downstream choice outcomes, exercise is deemed less important after a person chooses ;;organic” over conventional dessert, an effect that correlates positively with pro-environmentalism (Study 5). Overall, larger bias was observed among perceivers with strongly congruent (or incongruent) personal values, or those who likely felt especially positively (or negatively) toward the focal qualities, consistent with the logic of halo effects. Amid the ongoing obesity crisis, these findings reveal ethical health halos that lead perceivers to see nutritionally poor but ethically produced foods ashealthy. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.