Food labels play a key role in attracting consumers' attention and providing information that... more Food labels play a key role in attracting consumers' attention and providing information that could largely influence their purchase decisions. The aim of the present work was to evaluate how consumers acquire information from food labels using eye‐tracking measures. Fifty‐three consumers completed two tasks in which they evaluated perceived healthfulness of the products and willingness to purchase by looking at three unknown labels of three different products (mayonnaise, pan bread and yogurt).Participants' eye movements were recorded using an eye tracker while evaluating the labels. Results showed that in order to evaluate their willingness to purchase and perceived healthfulness of unknown food labels, consumers directed their attention to selected areas, searching for specific information such as brand, ingredients, nutritional information and the image on the label, regardless of type of product and label design.Practical ApplicationsAttention measures based on memory have been reported to be poor indicators of what consumers actually attend to, mainly due to the fact that attention is not necessarily active and conscious. Eye‐tracking measures could be a useful way of studying consumers' processing of visual stimuli such as food labels. Results from the present study suggested that attention toward unfamiliar food labels was mainly determined by top‐down factors. Consumers mainly scanned the labels, searching for specific information related to brand, composition and nutritional information.
Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior, Jul 1, 2015
To study the influence of 2 interpretational aids of front-of-package (FOP) nutrition labels (col... more To study the influence of 2 interpretational aids of front-of-package (FOP) nutrition labels (color code and text descriptors) on attentional capture and consumers' understanding of nutritional information. A full factorial design was used to assess the influence of color code and text descriptors using visual search and eye tracking. Ten trained assessors participated in the visual search study and 54 consumers completed the eye-tracking study. In the visual search study, assessors were asked to indicate whether there was a label high in fat within sets of mayonnaise labels with different FOP labels. In the eye-tracking study, assessors answered a set of questions about the nutritional content of labels. The researchers used logistic regression to evaluate the influence of interpretational aids of FOP nutrition labels on the percentage of correct answers. Analyses of variance were used to evaluate the influence of the studied variables on attentional measures and participants' response times. Response times were significantly higher for monochromatic FOP labels compared with color-coded ones (3,225 vs 964 ms; P < .001), which suggests that color codes increase attentional capture. The highest number and duration of fixations and visits were recorded on labels that did not include color codes or text descriptors (P < .05). The lowest percentage of incorrect answers was observed when the nutrient level was indicated using color code and text descriptors (P < .05). The combination of color codes and text descriptors seems to be the most effective alternative to increase attentional capture and understanding of nutritional information.
Food labels play a key role in attracting consumers' attention and providing information that... more Food labels play a key role in attracting consumers' attention and providing information that could largely influence their purchase decisions. The aim of the present work was to evaluate how consumers acquire information from food labels using eye‐tracking measures. Fifty‐three consumers completed two tasks in which they evaluated perceived healthfulness of the products and willingness to purchase by looking at three unknown labels of three different products (mayonnaise, pan bread and yogurt).Participants' eye movements were recorded using an eye tracker while evaluating the labels. Results showed that in order to evaluate their willingness to purchase and perceived healthfulness of unknown food labels, consumers directed their attention to selected areas, searching for specific information such as brand, ingredients, nutritional information and the image on the label, regardless of type of product and label design.Practical ApplicationsAttention measures based on memory have been reported to be poor indicators of what consumers actually attend to, mainly due to the fact that attention is not necessarily active and conscious. Eye‐tracking measures could be a useful way of studying consumers' processing of visual stimuli such as food labels. Results from the present study suggested that attention toward unfamiliar food labels was mainly determined by top‐down factors. Consumers mainly scanned the labels, searching for specific information related to brand, composition and nutritional information.
Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior, Jul 1, 2015
To study the influence of 2 interpretational aids of front-of-package (FOP) nutrition labels (col... more To study the influence of 2 interpretational aids of front-of-package (FOP) nutrition labels (color code and text descriptors) on attentional capture and consumers' understanding of nutritional information. A full factorial design was used to assess the influence of color code and text descriptors using visual search and eye tracking. Ten trained assessors participated in the visual search study and 54 consumers completed the eye-tracking study. In the visual search study, assessors were asked to indicate whether there was a label high in fat within sets of mayonnaise labels with different FOP labels. In the eye-tracking study, assessors answered a set of questions about the nutritional content of labels. The researchers used logistic regression to evaluate the influence of interpretational aids of FOP nutrition labels on the percentage of correct answers. Analyses of variance were used to evaluate the influence of the studied variables on attentional measures and participants' response times. Response times were significantly higher for monochromatic FOP labels compared with color-coded ones (3,225 vs 964 ms; P < .001), which suggests that color codes increase attentional capture. The highest number and duration of fixations and visits were recorded on labels that did not include color codes or text descriptors (P < .05). The lowest percentage of incorrect answers was observed when the nutrient level was indicated using color code and text descriptors (P < .05). The combination of color codes and text descriptors seems to be the most effective alternative to increase attentional capture and understanding of nutritional information.
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