The Impact of Health Claims on Consumer Search and Product Evaluation Outcomes: Results from FDA Experimental Data

The authors report results of a mall-intercept study regarding the effects of health claims on consumer information search and processing behavior. Results suggest that the presence of health and nutrient-content claims on food packages induces respondents to truncate information search to the front panel of packages. Respondents who either truncate information search or view claims provide more positive summary judgments of products and give greater weight to the information mentioned in claims than to the information available in the Nutrition Facts panel. The presence of a claim also is associated with a halo effect (rating the product higher on other health attributes not mentioned in the claim) and, for one of the three products tested, a magic-bullet effect (attributing inappropriate health benefits to the product). The authors discuss the policy implications of these results for Food and Drug Administration health claim regulations.

[1]  Christine Moorman,et al.  Market-Level Effects of Information: Competitive Responses and Consumer Dynamics , 1998 .

[2]  Gita Venkataramani Johar,et al.  A Varying-Parameter Averaging Model of On-Line Brand Evaluations , 1997 .

[3]  B. Ratchford,et al.  Consumer information search revisited: Theory and empirical analysis , 1997 .

[4]  Scot Burton,et al.  Consumer Generalization of Nutrient Content Claims in Advertising , 1998 .

[5]  Ronald Paul Hill,et al.  The Nutrition Labeling and Education Act—Progress to Date and Challenges for the Future , 1996 .

[6]  Raymond E. Schucker,et al.  Performance Characteristics of Seven Nutrition Label Formats , 1996 .

[7]  Manoj Hastak,et al.  Can Consumers Interpret Nutrition Information in the Presence of a Health Claim? A Laboratory Investigation , 1996 .

[8]  Christine Moorman,et al.  A Quasi Experiment to Assess the Consumer and Informational Determinants of Nutrition Information Processing Activities: The Case of the Nutrition Labeling and Education Act , 1996 .

[9]  N. Childs Keystone National Policy Dialogue on Food, Nutrition and Health Final Report , 1996 .

[10]  André de Palma,et al.  Rational Choice under an Imperfect Ability to Choose , 1994 .

[11]  D. Putler,et al.  Consumer Awareness of Diet-Disease Relationships and Dietary Behavior: The Case of Dietary Fat , 1994 .

[12]  P. Ippolito,et al.  New Food Labeling Regulations and the Flow of Nutrition Information to Consumers , 1993 .

[13]  Catherine A. Cole,et al.  Age differences in consumers' search for information: Public policy implications. , 1993 .

[14]  R. E. Schucker,et al.  More effective nutrition label formats are not necessarily preferred. , 1992, Journal of the American Dietetic Association.

[15]  Leonard M. Lodish,et al.  Comparing Dynamic Consumer Choice in Real and Computer-simulated Environments , 1992 .

[16]  Raymond E. Schucker,et al.  Nutrition shelf-labeling and consumer purchase behavior , 1992 .

[17]  Alan D. Mathios,et al.  Health Claims in Food Marketing: Evidence on Knowledge and Behavior in the Cereal Market , 1991 .

[18]  B. Silverglade A Comment on “Public Policy Issues in Health Claims for Foods , 1991 .

[19]  R. E. Schucker,et al.  Nutrition labeling formats: performance and preference , 1991 .

[20]  P. Ippolito,et al.  The regulation of science-based claims in advertising , 1990 .

[21]  C. Moorman The Effects of Stimulus and Consumer Characteristics on the Utilization of Nutrition Information , 1990 .

[22]  Catherine A. Cole,et al.  Cognitive and Age-Related Differences in the Ability to Use Nutritional Information in a Complex Environment , 1990 .

[23]  Alan D. Mathios,et al.  Information, Advertising and Health Choices: A Study of the Cereal Market , 1990 .

[24]  P. Ippolito,et al.  Information, advertising and health: a study of the cereal market. , 1990 .

[25]  Stephen J. Hoch,et al.  Managing What Consumers Learn from Experience , 1989 .

[26]  J. Calfee,et al.  Consumer Skepticism and Advertising Regulation: What Do the Polls Show? , 1988 .

[27]  Stephen J. Hoch,et al.  Consumer Learning: Advertising and the Ambiguity of Product Experience , 1986 .

[28]  Gary J. Russell,et al.  Nutrition Information in the Supermarket , 1986 .

[29]  T. E. Muller,et al.  Structural Information Factors which Stimulate the use of Nutrition Information: A Field Experiment , 1985 .

[30]  Kevin Lane Keller,et al.  Improving Measure Quality by Alternating Least Squares Optimal Scaling , 1985 .

[31]  R. E. Schucker,et al.  The Impact of a Nutrition Information Program on Food Purchases , 1985 .

[32]  J. Deighton,et al.  The Interaction of Advertising and Evidence , 1984 .

[33]  Richard Staelin,et al.  The Effect of Nutritional Information Disclosure in Advertising: An Information Processing Approach , 1984 .

[34]  Louis L Wilde,et al.  The Economics of Consumer Information Acquisition , 1980 .

[35]  D. Scammon "Information Load" and Consumers , 1977 .

[36]  J. Jacoby,et al.  Consumer Use and Comprehension of Nutrition Information , 1977 .

[37]  J. Jacoby,et al.  Information Acquisition Behavior in Brand Choice Situations , 1977 .

[38]  John W. Payne,et al.  Heuristic Search Processes in Decision Making , 1976 .

[39]  H A Simon,et al.  How Big Is a Chunk? , 1974, Science.

[40]  L. P. Bucklin,et al.  Nutrition Labeling for Canned Goods: A Study of Consumer Response , 1973 .

[41]  Murphy Mm,et al.  Two nutritional labeling systems. , 1973 .

[42]  G. A. Miller THE PSYCHOLOGICAL REVIEW THE MAGICAL NUMBER SEVEN, PLUS OR MINUS TWO: SOME LIMITS ON OUR CAPACITY FOR PROCESSING INFORMATION 1 , 1956 .