CONSUMER ACQUISITION OF COMMERCIAL AND NUTRITION INFORMATION IN FOOD CHOICE

In a computer-based choice task, the time consumers spent viewing info rmation on brand, price, a claim concerning the option, and quantitati ve nutrition information on energy, fat, carbohydrate and protein was measured. There was a highly significant interaction involving the ord er in which information appeared on the screen, with information at th e top receiving more attention. In the condition where commercial info rmation was given more prominence, the time was longest for brand but with little attention paid to claim. The number of times participants viewed the types of information yielded a similar result. When asked t heir reasons for making the choices, overwhelmingly the consumers repo rted that the claim was the most important determinant, whereas brand was relatively unimportant. The results are interpreted in terms of cl aim being an easily processed attribute, by comparison with the numeri cal nutrition information, while brand may serve as an identifier for the option and therefore have relatively high processing time.