How Health Buzzwords Trick Consumers
Health buzzwords like ‘protein’, ‘paleo’ and ‘organic’ are used in healthcare marketing as key selling points for many of today’s health products. Yet these words can also trick consumers into believing a product is healthier than it really is.
Inaccurate health messages can be dangerous as they:
don’t help to educate consumers to make informed health decisions, and
are often in conflict with the credible, accurate health information that is out there in the public domain.
Health buzzwords, perceptions and myths
To ensure consumers make healthier choices, it’s sensible to understand the misinformation in the industry, thus, breaking down false perceptions and demystifying health information. Nutritional information conveyed in food advertising is one aspect of health information that can be misleading. Nutrient content claims can affect perception and influence consumer judgement about healthy food. Single nutritional claims can also give deceptive information, known as a ‘health halo’ effect in food advertising.
How do health buzzwords create a ‘health halo’ effect in food advertising?
A ‘health halo’ occurs when a single health buzzword or claim causes a consumer to have positive impressions of the product. The ‘health halo’ affects our developing impression and judgement of the overall healthfulness of certain foods. Health halos in food advertising can occur from short messages on food packaging about the health benefits of grocery items. Front-of-package messages are deemed as a provider of key nutrient information that can be quickly and easily interpreted by consumers. For example, product labels containing the words ‘low fat’, ‘organic’ and ‘gluten-free’ are often incorrectly perceived as healthy choices and play a key role in consumer purchasing behaviours. These words play on society’s focus on the quantities of nutrients in foods as a marker of health status.
Study highlights the impact of ‘health halos’ from food packaging
US researchers recently studied the front-of-package labelling on protein pars for its ‘health halo’ effect on healthfulness perceptions. The New York research team investigated health halo effects of a product defined by its healthy nutrient (‘protein bar’) and its nutrient content claim (‘good source of protein’). The researchers found these products were perceived as having an increased protein content and as healthier overall. The researchers also noted that the title ‘protein bar’ significantly altered the perception of the healthiness of the food. The word ‘protein’ in the title increased perceptions of fibre and iron, demonstrating the health halo effect of nutrient information from the package label ‘protein bar’.
How can we lessen the impact of misleading health buzzwords?
The halo effect theory predicts consumers tend to overgeneralise from specific health claims, particularly when claims relate to positive perceptions. However, in the food industry, it is difficult for consumers to differentiate and make healthy choices between products when there is a wide variation in serving sizes and nutritional value. It’s sensible to be aware that these health buzzwords can cause a consumer to believe a product is healthier than it actually is. This doesn’t mean we should condemn words such as organic or paleo diets – it means we should have a balanced and proportionate understanding of the meaning and appropriate contexts of these health buzzwords. By addressing perceptions and myths, we can collectively improve the quality of available health information which will help us to make better informed health decisions.
Extracts taken from Dinethra Menon from www.healthwriter.com