Secure and Verifiable Electronic Voting in Practice: the use of vVote in the Victorian State Election

The November 2014 Australian State of Victoria election was the first statutory political election worldwide at State level which deployed an end-to-end verifiable electronic voting system in polling places. This was the first time blind voters have been able to cast a fully secret ballot in a verifiable way, and the first time a verifiable voting system has been used to collect remote votes in a political election. The code is open source, and the output from the election is verifiable. The system took 1121 votes from these particular groups, an increase on 2010 and with fewer polling places

Is Simpler Always Better? Consumer Evaluations of Front-of-Package Nutrition Symbols

Consumers of packaged goods products in the United States recently have faced an onslaught of front-of-package (FOP) nutrition symbols and icons, including the controversial “Smart Choices” single summary indicator. In a between-subjects experiment with 520 adult consumers, the authors compare effects of the Smart Choices (SC) icon, the more complex Traffic Light–Guideline Daily Amounts (TLGDAs) icon, and a no-FOP icon control for a nutritionally moderate food that qualifies for the SC icon. Drawing from principles of heuristic processing and halo effects, the authors predict and find that the SC icon can lead to positive (and potentially misleading) nutrient evaluations and product healthfulness when compared with the TL-GDA icon or no-FOP icon control. When the Nutrition Facts Panel is not available, the TL-GDA icon results in substantially greater nutrition accuracy scores than with the SC icon or control. The authors also find that nutrition consciousness is more likely to moderate effects related to the Nutrition Facts Panel than the FOP nutrition icon information. Implications are offered for public health officials, nutrition researchers, and food manufacturers, as the Food and Drug Administration considers FOP nutrition alternatives for use in the United States

Nutrition Labeling in the United States and the Role of Consumer Processing, Message Structure, and Moderating Conditions

It has been since 1990 that the landmark Nutritional Labeling Education Act (NLEA) was passed in the United States, and since 1969 that the first White House Conference on Food, Nutrition and Health occurred. In the time since these important events, considerable research has been conducted on how U.S. consumers process and use nutritional labeling. An up-to-date review of nutritional labeling research must address key findings on the processing and use of nutrition facts panels (NFPs), restaurant labeling, front-of-pack (FOP) symbols, health and nutrient content claims, new labeling efforts (e.g., for meat products), and claims not regulated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Message structure mediates the ways in which consumers process nutritional labeling while moderating conditions affect research outcomes associated with labeling efforts. The most recent policy issues and problems to be considered (e.g., by the FDA) include nutritional labeling as well as identifying opportunities for consumer research in helping to promote healthy lifestyles and reducing obesity in the United States and throughout the world. For example, several unanswered research questions remain regarding how the proposed changes to the NFPs—beef, poultry, and seafood labeling; restaurant chain calorie labeling; alternative FOP formats; and regulated and unregulated health and nutrient content claims—will affect consumers. Researchers have yet to examine not only these different labeling and nutrition information formats, but also how they might interact with one another and the role of key moderating conditions (e.g., one’s motivation, ability opportunity to process nutrition information) in affecting consumer processing and behavior

Nutrition Ad Claims and Disclosures: Interaction and Mediation Effects for Consumer Evaluations of the Brand and the Ad

The effects of ad disclosure information on evaluations of the brand, the advertisement, and purchase intentions are postulated to vary across different ad claim types. In addition, consumers\u27 product health perceptions are hypothesized to mediate the effects of the disclosure information and ad claim type on brand and ad-related evaluations. Results from a between subjects\u27 experiment show that the health perception measure mediates the effect of the disclosure on brand and ad evaluations, but the interaction between the ad claim type and the disclosure is not mediated by the inclusion in the model of consumers\u27 product health perceptions

The Nutrition Elite: Do Only the Highest Levels of Caloric Knowledge, Obesity Knowledge, and Motivation Matter in Processing Nutrition Ad Claims and Disclosures?

This study examines the role of the highest levels of caloric knowledge, obesity consequences knowledge, and motivation to search for nutrition information in the processing of relative nutrient content claims in advertisements, such as “half the calories” or “half the fat,” for products relatively high in total calorie levels. After controlling for the impact of demographics, dietary habits, body mass index, relative ad claims and disclosures, perceived weight gain risk, and other variables, the authors find curvilinear (quadratic) effects for caloric knowledge, obesity consequences knowledge, and motivation to search for nutrition information on intent to buy an advertised, high-calorie snack bar. This suggests a strengthening of the negative relationship for intent for consumers at the highest levels of caloric knowledge, obesity consequences knowledge, and motivation (i.e., the “nutrition elite”). The authors offer public policy implications, including whether achieving such exceedingly high levels of nutrition knowledge and motivation is realistic for the general public in light of other policy alternatives, such as market-based solutions (e.g., reducing serving sizes, standardized front-of-package icons)

Consumer Generalization of Nutrient Content Claims in Advertising

Although considerable research exists on consumer processing of nutrition labeling and package claims, less is known about consumer interpretation of nutrient content claims in advertising. This is important because product advertising often provides a significant first step for consumers in learning new nutrition information. Yet, unlike package claims, Nutrition Facts Panels are often not available for consumers during the processing of such advertising claims. Therefore, the authors examine the following research questions: (1) Do consumers misinterpret (i. e., overgeneralize) common nutrient content claims in advertising? If so, under what conditions does this occur? and (2) Can various types of disclosure statements remedy this problem? To address these questions, the authors interview a total of 365 primary food shoppers in three geographically dispersed malls in the United States in a between-subjects experiment. Misleading generalizations, beyond those of control ad claims, are found for general and specific nutrient content claims. Ad disclosure type, ad claim type, and nutrition knowledge all separately influence nutrient content and disease risk measures. Evaluative disclosures reduce misleading generalizations to a greater extent than do absolute or relative disclosures. The authors offer implications for public policy and food marketers

Tests of Graphic Visuals and Cigarette Package Warning Combinations: Implications for the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control

The World Health Organization recently adopted the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, a groundbreaking public health treaty that will require that warning information in the form of text, pictures, or a combination of these two forms cover at least 30% of the front and back of cigarette packages. In three studies using smokers from the United States and Canada, the authors examine the effects of specific graphic visuals in the context of current U.S. verbal warnings. The findings indicate that including both graphic visual warnings, such as those used in Canada, and warning statements currently used in the United States can decrease the perceived attractiveness of the package and create higher levels of negative affect, such as fear or anxiety. The results also show that the addition of the specific visual warnings examined to the U.S. statements increases smokers’ perceived intentions of quitting smoking compared with warning statements alone. The authors offer implications for public policy and public health and provide suggestions for further research

Understanding How Graphic Pictorial Warnings Work on Cigarette Packaging

The 2009 Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act requires cigarette packages to contain stronger warnings in the form of color, graphic pictures depicting the negative health consequences of smoking. The authors present results from a between-subjects experiment with more than 500 smokers that test (1) the effectiveness of pictorial warnings that vary in their graphic depiction of the warning and (2) an underlying mechanism proposed to drive potential effects of the manipulation of the graphic depiction. The findings indicate that more graphic pictorial warning depictions strengthen smokers’ intentions to quit smoking. Recall of warning message statements is reduced by moderately or highly graphic pictures compared with a no picture control or less graphic pictures. The results also show that the graphic warnings affect evoked fear, and in turn, fear mediates the effects of the graphic warning depiction on intentions to quit for the sample of smokers. This pattern of results indicates that though ighly graphic pictures may reduce specific message recall and limit the direct effect of recall on intentions to quit, highly graphic pictures increase intentions to quit smoking through evoked fear (i.e., fear fully mediates the effect of the graphic depiction level). The authors discuss implications for consumer health and policy decisions

Can Corrective Ad Statements Based on \u3cem\u3eU.S. v. Philip Morris USA Inc.\u3c/em\u3e Affect Consumer Beliefs about Smoking?

To comply with the court\u27s ruling in U.S. v. Philip Morris USA Inc., tobacco companies must fund a large advertising campaign to \u27correct\u27 smoking beliefs about which consumers may have been misled as a result of past deceptive practices of tobacco companies. The authors use an ad copy experiment to examine (1) the effects of different versions of corrective ad statements that plaintiff intervenors submitted to the court on multi-item belief measures and (2) the impact of the ad versions and beliefs on general attitudes toward smoking across current adult smokers and nonsmokers. The tested ad versions include a copy-only control condition, a copy-with-graphic-visual condition, and a version with a potentially distracting visual. The results indicate that the corrective statements in advertisements can have a positive effect on antismoking beliefs of focal interest in the case and that the test advertisements affect some beliefs more strongly than others. The authors discuss potential policy implications and limitations and provide suggestions for further research