Original title: The efficacy of the sugar-free labels is reduced by the health-sweetness tradeoff
Authors: Ksenia Panidi, Yaroslava Grebenschikova, Vasily Klucharev
In the article, researchers conducted an experiment to examine how sugar-free labels affect people’s willingness to pay for food products. Participants in the study bid on sugar-containing and sugar-free products in an auction, and also rated each product on perceived healthiness, sweetness, tastiness, and familiarity. The researchers used structural equation modelling to analyze the direct, indirect, and total effects of the labels on willingness to pay. The findings show that sugar-free labels increase the willingness to pay, as they are perceived as healthier than sugar-containing products. However, this positive effect is offset by a decrease in perceived sweetness (and tastiness) of the sugar-free products compared to the sugar-containing ones. The results suggest that there is a tradeoff between healthiness and sweetness, which diminishes the effectiveness of sugar-free labels in encouraging consumers to choose healthier options.
Original article: https://arxiv.org/abs/2311.09885