Key Laboratory of Brain-Machine Intelligence for Information Behavior (Ministry of Education and Shanghai), School of Business and Management, Shanghai International Studies University, Shanghai, China.
Key Laboratory of Brain-Machine Intelligence for Information Behavior (Ministry of Education and Shanghai), School of Business and Management, Shanghai International Studies University, Shanghai, China.
Appetite. 2024 Dec 1;203:107636. doi: 10.1016/j.appet.2024.107636. Epub 2024 Aug 21.
According to the theory of dietary regulation, consumers frequently encounter conflicts between healthiness and tastiness when selecting healthy foods. This study explores how packaging cue that highlight "tasty" versus "healthy" affect consumers' intentions to purchase healthy food. After an Implicit Association Test (IAT) confirmed a perceived lack of tastiness in health foods in the Preliminary study, Study 1 analyzed pricing and packaging details of the top 200 most-popular items in each of the ten healthy food categories on a major online shopping platform. Results showed that products with taste-focused cues commanded higher prices, indicating stronger consumer acceptance of healthy foods marketed as delicious. To address the causality limitations of observational studies, Study 2 used an experimental design to directly measure the impact of these cues on purchase intentions and perceptions of energy, healthiness, and tastiness. Findings revealed that taste-focused cues significantly boosted purchase intentions compared to health-focused cues, although they also diminished the perceived healthiness of the products. Moreover, in the control group exposed to unhealthy food options, health-emphasized packaging also increased purchase intentions, indicating that consumers seek a balance between healthiness and tastiness, rather than prioritizing health alone. Study 3 further explored the impact of cognitive load over these cue influences, revealing a heightened inclination among consumers to purchase healthy products with taste-focused cue under high cognitive load state. These insights have direct implications for food packaging design, suggesting that emphasizing a balance of taste and health benefits can effectively enhance consumer engagement. The study, which conducted in China, also opens avenues for future research to explore similar effects, maybe in different cultural contexts, different consumer groups, and under varied cognitive conditions.
根据饮食调节理论，消费者在选择健康食品时经常会在健康与美味之间产生冲突。本研究探讨了强调“美味”与“健康”的包装线索如何影响消费者购买健康食品的意愿。在初步研究中通过内隐联想测验（IAT）确认了健康食品的可感知美味缺失后，研究 1 分析了主要在线购物平台上十大健康食品类别中前 200 种最受欢迎产品的定价和包装细节。结果表明，具有口味焦点线索的产品定价更高，这表明消费者更接受美味的健康食品营销。为了解决观察性研究的因果关系局限性，研究 2 使用实验设计直接衡量这些线索对购买意愿和对能量、健康和美味的感知的影响。研究结果表明，与健康焦点线索相比，口味焦点线索显著提高了购买意愿，尽管它们也降低了产品的感知健康度。此外，在接触到不健康食品选择的对照组中，强调健康的包装也增加了购买意愿，这表明消费者在健康和美味之间寻求平衡，而不是仅仅关注健康。研究 3 进一步探讨了认知负荷对这些线索影响的影响，结果表明，在高认知负荷状态下，消费者更倾向于购买具有口味焦点线索的健康产品。这些研究结果对食品包装设计具有直接意义，表明强调口味和健康益处的平衡可以有效地提高消费者的参与度。这项在中国进行的研究也为未来在不同文化背景、不同消费者群体和不同认知条件下探索类似影响开辟了道路。
