When using nutritional labels, less is better

Marie Prevost (1) , Pascal Hot (1) , Monica Baciu (1) , Bernard Ruffieux (2) , David Meary (1) , Paolo Crosetto (3) , Laurent Muller (3)

1 LPNC - Laboratoire de Psychologie et NeuroCognition
2 Grenoble INP - Institut polytechnique de Grenoble - Grenoble Institute of Technology
3 GAEL - Laboratoire d'Economie Appliquée = Grenoble Applied Economics Laboratory

New colorful nutrional labels are now used in some countries to help people better evaluate how healthy are food products. But little is known about how we understand and manipulate colored information to evaluate food products. The authors test how people evaluate anonymous food products from nutritional information displayed as numbers (% of daily amount) or as colors (red, amber, green). They anticipate that people will categorize food as bad for their health as soon as the color red is presente, and that the performance and reaction time will reflect that colors are easier to use (possible use of heuristics) compared to numbers (very analytical).

Domaines: Economies et finances

Marie Prevost, Pascal Hot, Monica Baciu, Bernard Ruffieux, David Meary, et al.. When using nutritional labels, less is better. ICPS 2015 - International Convention of Psychological Science, Mar 2015, Amsterdam, Netherlands. pp.1, 2015. ⟨hal-01190188⟩