Health Halo Effects of Values-based Food Claims.

When judging nutritional aspects of foods, perceivers tend to overgeneralize from one “healthy” nutrition claim (e.g., “no cholesterol”) by assuming that foods feature other healthy attributes as well (e.g., low in fat). This finding has been discussed in terms of the classic halo effect in person perception, whereby impressions from strongly valenced attributes (e.g., social warmth) evoke similarly valenced evaluations of the target person on other attributes (e.g., sociability). Despite their popularity and health associations, scant research has explored whether claims like “organic” and “fair trade”—known as values-based claims—can similarly bias judgment. This dissertation explores this possibility. Specifically, despite being silent on nutrient content, values-based claims and other ethics-related production qualities (e.g., favorable worker treatment) are expected to promote unwarranted health inferences (e.g., reduced calorie estimates), especially when these qualities are personally relevant (i.e., strongly congruent or incongruent with perceivers’ personal values). Five experimental studies find support for this prediction. Describing cookies as “organic” decreases calorie judgments and thereby increases consumption recommendations, an effect that is larger among the pro-environmental (Studies 1 and 2). Extending to the social ethics domain, describing chocolate as “fairtrade” decreases calorie judgments; moreover, socially unethical production increases calorie judgments, among perceivers reporting high ethical food values (Studies 3 and 4). Exploring effects on downstream choice outcomes, exercise is deemed less important after a person chooses “organic” over conventional dessert, an effect that correlates positively with pro-environmentalism (Study 5). Overall, larger bias was observed among perceivers with strongly congruent (or incongruent) personal values, or those who likely felt especially positively (or negatively) toward the focal qualities, consistent with the logic of halo effects. Amid the ongoing obesity crisis, these findings reveal ethical health halos that lead perceivers to see nutritionally poor but ethically produced foods as healthy. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.PhDPsychologyUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/86306/1/jschuldt_1.pd

The Right Angle: Visual Portrayal of Products Affects Observers’ Impressions of Owners

Consumer products have long been known to influence observers’ impressions of product owners. The angle at which products are visually portrayed in advertisements, however, may be an overlooked factor in these effects. We hypothesize and find that portrayals of the same product from different viewpoints can prime different associations that color impressions of product and owner in parallel ways. In Study 1, automobiles were rated higher on status‐ and power‐related traits (e.g., dominant , powerful ) when portrayed head‐on versus in side profile, an effect found for sport utility vehicles (SUVs)—a category with a reputation for dominance—but not sedans. In Study 2, these portrayal‐based associations influenced the impressions formed about the product's owner: a target person was rated higher on status‐ and power‐related traits when his SUV was portrayed head‐on versus in side profile. These results suggest that the influence of visual portrayal extends beyond general evaluations of products to affect more specific impressions of products and owners alike, and highlight that primed traits are likely to influence impressions when compatible with other knowledge about the target.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/93734/1/mar20557.pd

Questionnaire design effects in climate change surveys: Implications for the partisan divide

Despite strong agreement among scientists, public opinion surveys reveal wide partisan disagreement on climate issues in the United States. We suggest that this divide may be exaggerated by questionnaire design variables. Following a brief literature review, we report on a national survey experiment involving U.S. Democrats and Republicans ( n = 2,041) (fielded August 25–September 5, 2012) that examined the effects of question wording and order on the belief that climate change exists, perceptions of scientific consensus, and support for limiting greenhouse gas emissions. Wording a questionnaire in terms of “global warming” (versus “climate change”) reduced Republicans’ (but not Democrats’) existence beliefs and weakened perceptions of the scientific consensus for both groups. Moreover, “global warming” reduced Republicans’ support for limiting greenhouse gases when this question immediately followed personal existence beliefs but not when the scientific consensus question intervened. We highlight the importance of attending to questionnaire design in the analysis of partisan differences. </jats:p

Individual Laboratory-Measured Discount Rates Predict Field Behavior

We estimate discount rates of 555 subjects using a laboratory task and find that these individual discount rates predict inter-individual variation in field behaviors (e.g., exercise, BMI, smoking). The correlation between the discount rate and each field behavior is small: none exceeds 0.28 and many are near 0. However, the discount rate has at least as much predictive power as any variable in our dataset (e.g., sex, age, education). The correlation between the discount rate and field behavior rises when field behaviors are aggregated: these correlations range from 0.09-0.38. We present a model that explains why specific intertemporal choice behaviors are only weakly correlated with discount rates, even though discount rates robustly predict aggregates of intertemporal decisions.

Measuring intertemporal preferences using response times

We use two different approaches to measure intertemporal preferences. First we employ the classical method of inferring preferences from a series of choices (subjects choose between $X now or$Y in D days). Second we adopt the novel approach of inferring preferences using only response time data from the same choices (how long it takes subjects to choose between $X now or$Y in D days). In principle, the inference from response times should work, since choices between items of nearly equivalent value should take longer than choices between items with substantially different values. We find that choice-based analysis and response-time-based analysis yield nearly identical discount rate estimates. We conclude that response time data sheds light on both our revealed (choice-based) preferences and on the cognitive processes that implement those preferences.

The Organic Food Premium: A Local Assessment in the UK

The present study combines stated and revealed preferences in order to estimate the hypothetical bias of a sample of organic food consumers from Canterbury in the UK. It uses contingent valuation and hedonic pricing to compare stated and revealed preferences and employs the Almost Ideal Demand System to estimate the elasticity of organic products. The results show that the average price premium is fairly large (approximately 10%). They also demonstrate, crucially, that the size of this estimate is encouragingly similar whether a willingness-to-pay or hedonic pricing method is used. The estimated elasticity of organic products is on average above one, suggesting an elastic response to pricing policy in the present sample. Desirable next steps and potential policy applications for future research are also discussed