Desiree Research Report

Running head: COLOR AND FOOD PERCEPTION 1

Effects of color and health perception of food

Desiree Pruitt

Louisiana State University

Section. 1


Abstract

In the present study, color was used as a universal symbol to examine the affects it would have

on health perception of food products. Red was used to denote unhealthy while green was used

to convey a more healthy food choice. Furthermore, articles labeled as healthy or unhealthy were

used to prime and educate the subjects and provide them with a certain mindset before starting

the experiment. It was found that color has an effect on how the product is perceived but does

not affect how unhealthy it’s perceived. The articles did not affect how healthy a product was

perceived but did affect how unhealthy they were perceived. Lastly, neither color nor the articles

had any effect on flavor perception.


Effect of color and health perception of food

Colors such as red and green are considered universal symbols to convey meaning to the

general public. Normally, green indicates something good while red indicates caution or

something bad. In a previous study conducted on the topic, it was investigated how this

concept could be applied to nutritional food labels in the UK, labeling risky foods with red

and nutritious foods in green (Balcombe, K., Fraser, I., & Falco, S.). In another study, other

universal symbols were used such as emoticons displaying normative approval and

disapproval with smiley and frowning faces (Vasiljevic, M., Pechey, R., & Marteau, T).

Another study manipulated both color and labeling information and found these factors can

greatly influence perceptual responses to them (Shankar, M., Levitan, C., Prescott, J., &

Spence, C, 2009). Lastly, another previous study left color out entirely and aimed to discover

if only manipulating the “front-of-pack” nutrition label formats would have an effect on the

healthfulness of peoples food choices (Aschemann-Witzel, J., Grunert, K., Trijp, H.,

Bialkova, S., Raats, M., Hodgkins, C., . . . Koenigstorfer, J.). Overall we see the goal of the

studies is to see if universal symbols could be used to denote healthier foods from non-

healthy foods. Furthermore, it can be observed that all the previous studies research how to

manipulate food labels to aid in making better food choices easier for the consumer. In the

present study, this notion was expounded and was applied to food packaging and whether or

not color would influence the consumer’s perception of the product. The goal of the study

was to determine if red or green food packaging would ultimately sway the consumer’s

perception of the healthiness of the product. Ultimately it was determined that green colored

food packaging would give off the impression that the particular food choice was a healthy

choice and red would denote an unhealthy choice. Through conducting this experiment, this

study could provide valuable information to marketing companies to advertise food in a way


that could be geared towards a certain audience, such as people who are trying to diet.

Furthermore, with a growing obesity epidemic, if food packaging was advertised in such a

way to help people make better food choices, this could aid in the growing issue at hand.

Method

Participants

Participants consisted of twenty two people, fourteen females and eight males ranging

from ages 19 to 22 years old. Participants were obtained through volunteers from Psychology

classes. For participating in the study, participants received lab participation points.

Stimuli and Materials

Materials used consisted of two different passages, a healthy and unhealthy passage. As

well as a power point showing thirty different products, fifteen of which were green and the

other fifteen red. Also, a score sheet was handed out to students for them to rate the overall

health perception of each product, and to answer the questions provided on the power point at the

end of the experiment. All questions and ratings were asked to be answered on a Likert scale

from 1-5, 1 being the least healthy and 5 being the most. Stimuli consisted of the thirty different

products shown to the students, each product had both a red and green image. For example, each

student would view both a red coke and a green coke or a red packaged granola bar and a green

packaged granola bar. Other stimuli consisted of the two passages given to students at the start of

the experiment, to prime them to view the products in a healthy or unhealthy light.

Design and Procedure

In the present study, a 2 X 2 mixed factorial design was implemented. With two different

levels to two different independent variables. The first independent variable, the article,


encompassed a between subjects design. One group experience the healthy article while the other

group experienced the unhealthy article. The second independent variable, the color,

encompassed a within subjects design and all participants experienced both colors. The

dependent variables consisted of the rankings each participant gave on the overall healthiness of

each product and the series of questions answered at the end of the presentation (list of questions

can be viewed in the appendix).

At the start of the experiment, participants were given a passage that was labeled either

healthy or unhealthy. The passages were meant to prime and education the students and provide

them with a certain mindset of the products, either putting them in the mindset to hold a healthy

or unhealthy perspective. After they were finished reading the passage, participants were asked

to give a thumbs up. Once all students finished reading the passage, a scoring sheet was handed

out and the powerpoint was presented. Once displayed, thirty different images were presented of

either a green or red colored food packaging. Between each slide was a twenty second pause in

which participants rated each product on a Likert scale from 1-5, 1 being the least healthy and 5

being the most. The products shown to the students and the articles served as the independent

variables and their ratings of these products served as the dependent variable. After all the

products were shown, participants were given six questions to answer, which they answered on

the back of the scoring sheet.

Results

To interpret the results, the data was put into SPSS and deduced through an ANOVA

mixed factorial design test. It was found that for the perception of healthiness, there was no

interaction between group and color but a significant difference for color, this can be seen in

figure 1, F(1, 20) = .007 p > .05. Thus we failed to reject the null hypothesis. For perception of


unhealthiness, there was a significant difference between groups but no interaction between

group and color, this can be seen in figure 2, F(1, 20) = .197 p >.05. Therefore we failed to reject

the null hypothesis. For perception of tastiness, there was neither a significant difference or

interaction, this can be seen in figure 3, F(1, 20) = 8.62 p < .05 thus we reject the alternate

hypothesis.

Discussion

Overall, it was found that color has a significant effect on how a product is perceived.

This outcome is align with the hypothesis that color will have an effect on the perception of the

healthiness product. However, color does not affect how unhealthy a product is perceived.

Furthermore, it was found that the articles, or prior knowledge, did not affect how healthy a

product was perceived. This finding could suggest that education alone on healthier food choices

could not be the best means in swaying the consumer’s perception of a healthy food product.

Though, the articles did affect how unhealthy the food products were perceived. This outcome

may have been due to the particular articles that were chosen, these articles can be found in the

reference section. Lastly, neither the color nor the articles had any effect on the perception of

flavor. Thus what can be taken from this is the best way to advertise a food product as healthy is

through color. Therefore, given the findings from previous studies, the most efficient way to aid

people in making better food choices is to make the nutrition label front and center and attach to

it universal symbols (such as color and emoticons) to convey the overall healthiness of the

product. Throughout the experiment, there are flaws and limitations that must be noted. The

results could have been different if there was more time to conduct the experiment. The time

constraint created many limitations. If given more time, we could have had more participants,

providing the experiment with more data and thus more accurate and valid results, further


strengthening the argument. Furthermore, the experiment could have been expanded to more

food groups rather than just studying processed foods. Again, due to time constraints, it was

necessary to limit the food choice to only processed foods. However, limiting it to only

processed foods could have had a negative effect on the results because people already knew that

processed foods are not good for you. Therefore, having this common knowledge that processed

foods are bad for you, participants went into the experiment already holding the perception that

the food that was being shown to them is bad for you. If given more time, a way in which this

could have been fixed, or a suggestion for future research, would be to expand the food category

to fresh foods or foods that are produced to be healthy. Having more of a variety of foods

involved in the experiment could have provided the research with stronger results. Moreover,

rather than just showing the participants the food and asking them to rate its overall healthiness,

it would have been better to set up an artificial grocery story and observe the choices made by

the participants. Thus, for future research, it could be more beneficial to ask subjects to choose

certain food products that they think they would buy if they were on a health conscious diet and a

unhealthy diet. Given this autonomy, we could better observe why participants made their

particular selection and how they may actually act in the grocery store rather than in an

experiment. In conclusion, results show that color is the most effective way to sway peoples’

perception of how healthy a particular food product is. Surprisingly, education, or the articles,

did not play a major role in health perception of the products. Moreover, due to time constrains

and not a lot of participants, limitations were present in the study. What would have made this

experiment better would have been more time to create a better study in which we could have

used a wider range of food products and displayed them in such a way that it would have been


completely up to the subject to choose on their own free will certain food products in which they

deemed healthy or unhealthy.


References

Aschemann-Witzel, J., Grunert, K., Trijp, H., Bialkova, S., Raats, M., Hodgkins, C., . . .

Koenigstorfer, J. (n.d.). Effects of nutrition label format and product assortment on the

healthfulness of food choice. Appetite, 63-74.

Balcombe, K., Fraser, I., & Falco, S. (n.d.). Traffic lights and food choice: A choice experiment

examining the relationship between nutritional food labels and price. Food Policy, 211-

220.

Shankar, M., Levitan, C., Prescott, J., & Spence, C. (2009). The Influence of Color and Label

Information on Flavor Perception. Chem. Percept. Chemosensory Perception, 53-58.

Vasiljevic, M., Pechey, R., & Marteau, T. (n.d.). Making food labels social: The impact of colour

of nutritional labels and injunctive norms on perceptions and choice of snack foods.

Appetite, 56-63.


Appendix A

Figure 1.


Appendix B

Figure 2.


Appendix C

Figure 3.


Appendix D


Appendix E

Documents

Desiree Research Report