When you buy a candy bar, would you choose the one with a green nutrition label or red one? A Cornell researcher has found that consumers are now choosing the green labelled candy bars because they are percieved to be “healthier”.
Image: Schuldt, P. (2013) Does Green Mean Healthy? Nutrition Label Color Affects Perceptions of Healthfulness. Helalth Communication, 1-8.
As society continues to want more sustainable, eco-friendly and “green-products”, companies are doing whatever it takes to keep up with the demand…even if it means tricking us at our own game! Unfortunately, this means putting “green-coloured” nutrition labels on the packaging.
Overall, the study was broken down into two parts: (1) comparing which candy bar a consumer would choose –green-labelled one versus red and (2) employing nearly identical images on a label except that the red calorie label was replaced with the white colour (this was to prove no bias amongst the first study with the green label).
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The results overall show that colour does indeed influence our healthfulness perceptions. Afterall, colour in many societies is consistent with psychological research demonstrating that colours carry meaning (2). For example, black often symbolizes evil in many cultures, whereas white symbolizes goodness and moral purity (3,4). Also, we rely on the shared knowledge that green is often associated with the meaning “go” in traffic signals, yellow/amber meaning “slow/prepare to stop,” and red meaning “stop.” (1)
Indeed, some front-of-package labeling systems make explicit use of these associations, most notably the Multiple Traffic Light system developed by the Food Standards Agency in the United Kingdom, which features green, yellow, and red circles to signal relatively healthy, intermediate, and unhealthy nutrient levels, respectively. (1)
Science Daily News.com interviewed the professor behind the study and he said that:
“More and more, calorie labels are popping up on the front of food packaging, including the wrappers of sugary snacks like candy bars. And currently, there’s little oversight of these labels,” said Jonathon Schuldt, assistant professor of communication and director of Cornell’s Social Cognition and Communication Lab. “Our research suggests that the color of calorie labels may have an effect on whether people perceive the food as healthy, over and above the actual nutritional information conveyed by the label, such as calorie content.”
This just shows how important it is for us as consumers to understand our marketplace. Today’s grocery stores make too much money from our “impulse buying” habits while we are waiting in line!!! So next time you go to reach for that candy bar, think again- triple check that the label is not fooling you!!
If you want to learn more about labels and food products, check out Eco-Savy’s GREEN LABEL’S section.
References
(1) Schuldt, P. (2013) Does Green Mean Healthy? Nutrition Label Color Affects Perceptions of Healthfulness. Helalth Communication, 1-8.
(2) Elliot, A. J., Maier, M. A., Moller, A. C., Friedman, R. and Meinhardt, J. 2007. Color and psychological functioning: The effect of red on performance in achievement contexts. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 136: 154–168.
(3) Adams, F. M. and Osgood, C. E. 1973. A cross-cultural study of the affective meanings of color. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 4: 135–156.
(4) Frank, M. G. and Gilovich, T. 1988. The dark side of self- and social perception: Black uniforms and aggression in professional sports. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 41: 74–85.
