Eating with a Purpose: Consumer Responses to Functional Food Health Claims
By Kelly L. Haws, Rebecca W. Naylor, Courtney Droms
In Press
Journal of Public Policy & Marketing, Vol. 28, #2, pp. in press
Abstract
Marketers of food products have recently introduced a variety of “functional foods” that promise consumers improvements in targeted physiological functions. However, despite the proliferation of functional food health claims promising more than basic nutrition, very little is known about consumer responses to these claims, particularly in information environments where inconsistent information may be available about the efficacy of a particular functional ingredient. Across two studies, we demonstrate that consumers with lower health consciousness are particularly sensitive to conflicting information about the validity of a functional food health claim; the presentation of conflicting (vs. complementary) information significantly lowers their likelihood of choosing a functional over a nonfunctional food. Consumers with higher health consciousness, however, do not reduce their likelihood of choosing a functional food when confronted with conflicting information. We demonstrate that this effect is driven by a confirmatory bias to believe the functional food health claim on the part of consumers with higher health consciousness. Implications for the successful marketing of functional foods, as well as implications for public policy makers and consumers are discussed.
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