Gain vs. loss-framing for reducing sugar consumption: Insights from a choice experiment with six product categories

Abstract

Front-of-package (FOP) nutrition labelling schemes use different framing to highlight nutrient content and promote healthier food choices. Health logos and nutritional warnings can be positioned on opposite sides of a continuous that goes from highlighting healthful products (gain-frame) to highlight unhealthful products (loss-frame), respectively. The aim of the present work was to evaluate the impact of health logos and nutritional warnings on consumers' choice of products with lower sugar content, and the impact of the two FOP nutrition labelling schemes on consumers' associations with sugar. An online study with 1232 people was carried out. Participants were randomly assigned to three experimental conditions: control (no information), health logos and nutritional warnings. They were presented with a series of three packages of different product categories featuring the corresponding information about sugar content and they had to indicate the product they would buy. After completing the choice tasks, they had to complete a word association task about sugar. Results confirmed that the inclusion of FOP nutrition labelling schemes containing information about sugar content encouraged consumers to select the product with lower sugar content. A larger proportion of participants selected the product with the lowest sugar content when packages featured nutritional warnings compared to when they featured health logos. Results from the word association task showed that nutritional warnings made the negative health effects of sugar more salient on consumers' mind. These results suggest that FOP nutrition labelling schemes based on a loss-frame to sugar content may be more efficient at encouraging healthier food choices than gain-frame schemes.

Keywords: FOP; Front-of-package; Health logos; Nutrition information; Warnings.