Fifty shades of food: The influence of package color saturation on health and taste in consumer judgments

TLDR

Consumers use visual cues on food packaging, such as color saturation, to judge healthiness and tastiness. The authors ran three studies manipulating package picture color—comparing grayscale to full color and varying saturation—to have participants rate snack and drink products on healthiness and tastiness. They found a positive healthiness‑tastiness correlation that weakened with grayscale images, and higher saturation increased both ratings, mediated by perceived freshness.

Abstract

Abstract When evaluating food products, consumers rely on visual cues on packages to infer their healthiness and tastiness. We assumed that color, specifically color saturation, is one such cue, similarly relevant for both healthiness and tastiness inferences. We conducted three studies in which we manipulated the color of pictures of product packages. Participants viewed pictures from the category of snacks (Study 1a) and drinks (Studies 1b and 2), available at a supermarket's online store and rated each product on the dimensions of healthiness and tastiness. In two studies, we showed one group of participants product pictures only as grayscale images, whereas another group viewed the pictures in full color. In a third study, we showed participants product pictures once with increased and once with decreased color saturation. We consistently found a positive correlation between healthiness and tastiness. Presenting pictures of products as grayscale images weakened the healthy‐tasty correlation. Products with increased compared with decreased color saturation were rated as both healthier and tastier, mediated by the products' perceived freshness.