title: Emolabeling effectively reduces the influence of ambiguous labeling on food packages among grocery store shoppers.
abstract: Despite increased regulations and policy enforcement for nutrition labeling, ambiguous labels on food items can still have deleterious effects on consumer perceptions of health. The present study used a counterbalanced within-subjects design to test if emolabeling - the use of emoticons to convey health information (happy = healthy; sad = not healthy) - will reduce the effects of ambiguous labels on consumer perceptions of the healthfulness of a food item. 85 grocery store shoppers were shown nutrition labels for a low calorie (LC) and a high calorie (HC) food with/without emolabels, and with an ambiguous label that either implied the food was healthy or unhealthy. Results showed that emolabels reduced the effectiveness of ambiguous labels: consumers rated the LC food as healthier and the HC food as less healthy when emolabels were added. The results suggest that, if implemented, this image-based emolabeling system could possibly be an effective buffer against the use of ambiguous labeling by food manufacturers.
authors.affiliation: . gprivite@sbu.edu.
authors.forename: Gregory J
authors.initials: GJ
authors.lastname: Privitera
authors.forename: Caitlin J
authors.initials: CJ
authors.lastname: Brown
authors.forename: James J
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Gillespie
mesh_terms: D002755:Choice Behavior; D003132:Commerce; D004644:Emotions; D005260:Female; D005515:Food Labeling / Q000379:methods*; D058870:Food, Organic; D058015:Health Communication / Q000379:methods*; D006293:Health Promotion / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009518:New York; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires