Label Sizes Encourage Guiltless Gluttony

ISTANBUL, TurkeyPeople often are fooled when it comes to food labels, and size labels on food products can have a major impact on size judgments and consumption, according to a recent study published online ahead of print in the Journal of Consumer Research.

According to researchers at Koc University  and the University of Michigan, when forming size judgments, consumers integrate the actual size information from the stimuli with the semantic cue from the size label. Size labels not only influence size perception and actual consumption, they also affect perceived consumption. Size labels also can result in relative perceived size reversals, so that consumers deem a smaller package to be bigger than a larger one. Consumers also are more likely to believe a label that professes an item to be smaller (vs. larger) in the size range associated with that item. This asymmetric effect of size labels can result in larger consumption without the consumer even being aware of guiltless gluttony.