The Impact of Health Claims on Consumer Search and Product Evaluation Outcomes: Results from FDA Experimental Data

TLDR

The study investigates how health claims on food packages influence consumer information search and product evaluation. The authors conducted a mall‑intercept experiment to observe consumer search behavior and judgments. Health claims cause consumers to truncate search to the front panel, produce more favorable product judgments, emphasize claim information over Nutrition Facts, and create halo and magic‑bullet effects.

Abstract

The authors report results of a mall-intercept study regarding the effects of health claims on consumer information search and processing behavior. Results suggest that the presence of health and nutrient-content claims on food packages induces respondents to truncate information search to the front panel of packages. Respondents who either truncate information search or view claims provide more positive summary judgments of products and give greater weight to the information mentioned in claims than to the information available in the Nutrition Facts panel. The presence of a claim also is associated with a halo effect (rating the product higher on other health attributes not mentioned in the claim) and, for one of the three products tested, a magic-bullet effect (attributing inappropriate health benefits to the product). The authors discuss the policy implications of these results for Food and Drug Administration health claim regulations.