Health motivation and product design determine consumers’ visual attention to nutrition information on food products

Abstract Objective In the present study we investigated consumers’ visual attention to nutrition information on food products using an indirect instrument, an eye tracker. In addition, we looked at whether people with a health motivation focus on nutrition information on food products more than people with a taste motivation. Design Respondents were instructed to choose one of five cereals for either the kindergarten (health motivation) or the student cafeteria (taste motivation). The eye tracker measured their visual attention during this task. Then respondents completed a short questionnaire. Setting Laboratory of the ETH Zurich, Switzerland. Subjects Videos and questionnaires from thirty-two students (seventeen males; mean age 24·91 years) were analysed. Results Respondents with a health motivation viewed the nutrition information on the food products for longer and more often than respondents with a taste motivation. Health motivation also seemed to stimulate deeper processing of the nutrition information. The student cafeteria group focused primarily on the other information and did this for longer and more often than the health motivation group. Additionally, the package design affected participants’ nutrition information search. Conclusions Two factors appear to influence whether people pay attention to nutrition information on food products: their motivation and the product’s design. If the package design does not sufficiently facilitate the localization of nutrition information, health motivation can stimulate consumers to look for nutrition information so that they may make a more deliberate food choice.

[1]  R. Nayga,et al.  Consumers' Use of Nutritional Labels While Food Shopping and At Home , 1998 .

[2]  Miles Richardson,et al.  An objective examination of consumer perception of nutrition information based on healthiness ratings and eye movements , 2007, Public Health Nutrition.

[3]  E. Ziegel,et al.  Bootstrapping: A Nonparametric Approach to Statistical Inference , 1993 .

[4]  P. Williams,et al.  Consumer understanding and use of health claims for foods. , 2005, Nutrition reviews.

[5]  T. R. Kirk,et al.  The nutrition label – which information is looked at? , 2002 .

[6]  Jonathan J. Fox,et al.  Who uses nutrition labeling, and what effects does label use have on diet quality? , 1995 .

[7]  M. Siegrist,et al.  Applying the evaluability principle to nutrition table information. How reference information changes people's perception of food products , 2009, Appetite.

[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]  M. Neuhouser,et al.  Food nutrition label use is associated with demographic, behavioral, and psychosocial factors and dietary intake among African Americans in North Carolina. , 2005, Journal of the American Dietetic Association.

[10]  Joseph H. Goldberg,et al.  Visual Search of Food Nutrition Labels , 1999, Hum. Factors.

[11]  R. Pieters,et al.  Visual attention during brand choice : The impact of time pressure and task motivation , 1999 .

[12]  M L Neuhouser,et al.  Use of food nutrition labels is associated with lower fat intake. , 1999, Journal of the American Dietetic Association.

[13]  A. Boaz,et al.  Consumer use of health-related endorsements on food labels in the United Kingdom and Australia. , 2001, Journal of nutrition education.

[14]  B. Wyse,et al.  Review of nutrition labeling formats. , 1991, Journal of the American Dietetic Association.

[15]  Klaus G. Grunert,et al.  A review of European research on consumer response to nutrition information on food labels , 2007, Journal of Public Health.

[16]  Lynn Stockley,et al.  Consumer understanding and use of nutrition labelling: a systematic review , 2005, Public Health Nutrition.

[17]  J. R. Landis,et al.  The measurement of observer agreement for categorical data. , 1977, Biometrics.

[18]  D. Wigboldus,et al.  The Unconscious Consumer: Effects of Environment on Consumer Behavior , 2005 .