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Simply adding the word “fruit” makes sugar healthier: The misleading effect of symbolic information on the perceived healthiness of food
Sütterlin and Siegrist (2015) set up 4 experiments to find out whether people use simple heuristics to assess the healthiness of food products since for example the inclusion of the word “fruit” in “fruit sugar”, the colloquial name for fructose in Germany could mislead one to perceive the product as relatively healthy due to the association between fruit and health. Experiment 1 involved providing 164 individuals with one of two cereal bars, with one group given the nutrition table with the label “fruit sugar” and the other group provided with that labeled solely “sugar”. The results pointed to the participants holding a more positive perception of the “fruit sugar” cereal than the bars excluding the word “fruit”. Experiment 2 was a within-subjects designed version of Experiment 1, with all 202 subjects evaluating both cereal bars simultaneously, which resulted in the same trend occurring. Experiment 3 (N = 251) ruled out the alternative explanation that the effect could be due to differing inferences about the product’s ingredients based on the label used, that is, that the product labeled with “fruit sugar” contains fruit. Results from the 4th experiment involving 162 participants indicated the labeling of the word “sugar” and its healthiness association mediated the previously observed effect. This study clarifies that symbolic information on food products can influence people’s perception of its healthiness, which can prove valuable from a marketing and public health standpoint. [NPID: perception, wording, positive perception, labels, sugar, marketing, public health]
Year: 2015
