Visual Pathways to Health: The Impact of Color and Label Information Format on Nutrition Label Processing
B.M.M. Jacobs (TU Delft - Technology, Policy and Management)
I. Lefter – Mentor (TU Delft - Technology, Policy and Management)
L. Rook – Mentor (TU Delft - Technology, Policy and Management)
More Info
expand_more
Other than for strictly personal use, it is not permitted to download, forward or distribute the text or part of it, without the consent of the author(s) and/or copyright holder(s), unless the work is under an open content license such as Creative Commons.
Abstract
This study focuses on investigating the relationship between label information format, color, and consumer visual attention in nutritional label design. The aim of this research is to determine whether each of these variables individually influences attention, and to infer whether there is an interaction effect. A meta-analysis was conducted to delve into the role of color on consumer attention. This yielded inconclusive results due to a small sample size and significant variation in experimental designs among the studies. In order to verify whether these results truly indicate that color had little effect on consumer attention, or if this was a result of a confounding variable differing between the studies, an eye tracking experiment was performed. This experiment investigated both label information format and color as separate variables, and also examined their interaction effect on consumer attention. Results from the experiment suggest that the effect of color is dependent on the label information format. In argument based labels, color significantly influences attention, while in heuristic based labels this effect is insignificant. The study furthermore discusses the relevance and limitations of this research, and offers suggestions for future research.