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The pitfall of nutrition facts label fluency: easier-to-process nutrition information enhances purchase intentions for unhealthy food products

Author

Listed:
  • Pierrick Gomez

    (NEOMA Business School)

  • Carolina O. C. Werle

    (Grenoble Ecole de Management)

  • Olivier Corneille

    (Université Catholique de Louvain)

Abstract

This research examines the metacognitive effects of nutrition facts label clarity on food preferences. Two experiments show that, holding information content and comprehensibility constant, providing consumers with easier-to-process nutrition information increases purchase intentions for food products. The effect occurs not only for healthy (study 1) but also, and more ironically so, for unhealthy (study 1 and 2) food products. In addition, the latter fluency effect is found to be stronger among people scoring low in nutrition knowledge (study 2). These findings emphasize the consequences of delivering easily readable nutrition information to consumers. They also point to a potential pitfall of health prevention policies based on the simplification of nutrition labeling.

Suggested Citation

  • Pierrick Gomez & Carolina O. C. Werle & Olivier Corneille, 2017. "The pitfall of nutrition facts label fluency: easier-to-process nutrition information enhances purchase intentions for unhealthy food products," Marketing Letters, Springer, vol. 28(1), pages 15-27, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:mktlet:v:28:y:2017:i:1:d:10.1007_s11002-015-9397-3
    DOI: 10.1007/s11002-015-9397-3
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

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