Department of Food Economics and Food Policy, Institute of Food Economics and Consumption Studies, Kiel University, Kiel, Germany.
PLoS One. 2022 Jul 25;17(7):e0271198. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0271198. eCollection 2022.
Food products are often subject to information asymmetries, which are commonly supposed to be reduced by labels and certifications. However, as the number of labels increases, consumers tend to get confused, bored or impatient and stop using them to make product choices. This study uses data from a discrete choice experiment, conducted in Germany, to analyze consumers' preferences and willingness-to-pay (WTP) for sustainability indicators on products that contain palm oil as an ingredient. Since information is crucial to the assessment and awareness of, or attendance to, labels on consumer products, this study assesses the effect of factual information on preferences as well as attribute-processing strategies. We use a hybrid latent variable model that allows us to jointly examine the response to the stated choice component and the responses to attribute processing questions, thus capturing attribute non-attendance (ANA) to specific labels while controlling for heterogenous preferences. Our results reveal that the attribute 'organic' receives the highest monetary valuation in the overall sample as well as in the information intervention, and the no-information intervention groups. The results also show that providing additional information tends to change consumers' non-attendance patterns as well as WTP values. In particular, the information intervention tends to increase consumers' WTP and decreases their ANA for sustainability-indicating attributes. The findings suggest that the attribute 'organic' has the potential to be ranked highest across the entire latent variable structure, making it the most promising attribute for promoting sustainable palm oil use across consumer groups.
食品经常存在信息不对称的情况，标签和认证通常被认为可以减少这种情况。然而，随着标签数量的增加，消费者往往会感到困惑、厌烦或不耐烦，并停止使用这些标签来做出产品选择。本研究使用在德国进行的离散选择实验的数据，分析了消费者对含有棕榈油成分的产品的可持续性指标的偏好和支付意愿（WTP）。由于信息对于评估、了解或关注消费品上的标签至关重要，因此本研究评估了事实信息对偏好以及属性处理策略的影响。我们使用混合潜在变量模型，该模型允许我们联合检查对陈述选择组件的响应以及对属性处理问题的响应，从而在控制异质偏好的同时，捕获对特定标签的属性不关注（ANA）。我们的结果表明，在整个样本中以及在信息干预组和无信息干预组中，属性“有机”的货币估值最高。结果还表明，提供额外的信息往往会改变消费者的不关注模式和 WTP 值。特别是，信息干预往往会增加消费者的 WTP，并降低他们对可持续性指示属性的 ANA。研究结果表明，“有机”属性有可能在整个潜在变量结构中排名最高，使其成为在消费者群体中推广可持续棕榈油使用的最有前途的属性。
