title: Do Health Claims and Front-of-Pack Labels Lead to a Positivity Bias in Unhealthy Foods?
abstract: Health claims and front-of-pack labels (FoPLs) may lead consumers to hold more positive attitudes and show a greater willingness to buy food products, regardless of their actual healthiness. A potential negative consequence of this positivity bias is the increased consumption of unhealthy foods. This study investigated whether a positivity bias would occur in unhealthy variations of four products (cookies, corn flakes, pizzas and yoghurts) that featured different health claim conditions (no claim, nutrient claim, general level health claim, and higher level health claim) and FoPL conditions (no FoPL, the Daily Intake Guide (DIG), Multiple Traffic Lights (MTL), and the Health Star Rating (HSR)). Positivity bias was assessed via measures of perceived healthiness, global evaluations (incorporating taste, quality, convenience, etc.) and willingness to buy. On the whole, health claims did not produce a positivity bias, while FoPLs did, with the DIG being the most likely to elicit this bias. The HSR most frequently led to lower ratings of unhealthy foods than the DIG and MTL, suggesting that this FoPL has the lowest risk of creating an inaccurate positivity bias in unhealthy foods.
authors.affiliation: School of Psychology and Speech Pathology, Curtin University, Kent St, Bentley, WA 6102, Australia. zenobia.talati@curtin.edu.au.
authors.forename: Zenobia
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Talati
authors.affiliation: School of Psychology and Speech Pathology, Curtin University, Kent St, Bentley, WA 6102, Australia. simone.pettigrew@curtin.edu.au.
authors.forename: Simone
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Pettigrew
authors.affiliation: Centre for Behavioural Research in Cancer, Cancer Council Victoria, Melbourne, VIC 3004, Australia. helen.dixon@cancervic.org.au.
authors.forename: Helen
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Dixon
authors.affiliation: The George Institute for Global Health, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2000, Australia. bneal@georgeinstitute.org.au.
authors.forename: Bruce
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Neal
authors.affiliation: Institute for Physical Activity and Nutrition, School of Exercise and Nutrition Sciences, Deakin University, Geelong, VIC 3220, Australia. kylie.ball@deakin.edu.au.
authors.forename: Kylie
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Ball
authors.affiliation: Cancer Council, Sydney, NSW 2150, Australia. clareh@nswcc.org.au.
authors.forename: Clare
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Hughes
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D015982:Bias; D002648:Child; D002755:Choice Behavior; D003258:Consumer Behavior / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D008192:Deception; D005260:Female; D005502:Food / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005515:Food Labeling / Q000379:methods*; D005518:Food Preferences / Q000523:psychology*; D015438:Health Behavior; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009751:Nutritional Requirements; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: daily intake; front-of-pack labelling; health claims; health halo; health star rating; positivity bias; traffic lights