Journal of Business Research 82 (2018) 10–18

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Journal of Business Research

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jbusres

Package color saturation and food healthfulness perceptions☆ MARK

a,⁎ b
James A. Mead , Rob Richerson
a
Department of Marketing, Supply Chain Logistics, and Economics, University of West Florida, 11000 University Pkwy, Pensacola, FL 32514, USA
b
Department of Management and Marketing, Salisbury University, Perdue School of Business, 1101 Camden Avenue, Salisbury, MD 21801, USA

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Keywords: Vivid, highly saturated colors are often perceived as exciting and arousing, making them popular in branding
Food and package design. However, are foods packaged in vivid colors also perceived as unhealthful? Across four
Color saturation experiments, we demonstrate that consumers appear to perceive foods in vivid, highly color-saturated food
Conceptual fluency packaging as less healthful than foods in muted, less color-saturated packaging. Further, we demonstrate that
Healthfulness
conceptual fluency mediates the effect, subjective nutrition knowledge weakens the effect, and restrained eating
Restrained eaters
behavior strengthens the effect. We contribute to the color literature that explores the distinct effects of different
Subjective knowledge
color elements on consumer perceptions. We also advance the food well-being literature by identifying a new
heuristic that affects food well-being, and in doing so, join other researchers who have connected learned color
associations to substantive consumer outcomes. Finally, we offer food marketers new insights into consumers'
evaluations of their products.

1. Introduction
Vivid, highly saturated colors are often perceived as exciting (Aaker,
1997; Labrecque & Milne, 2012) and arousing (Gorn, Chattopadhyay,
Yi, & Dahl, 1997), making them popular in branding and package de-
sign. However, in the context of packaged food, could package color
saturation also serve as an incidental cue that also affects consumers'
evaluation of the food item's healthfulness? For example, when grocery
shopping, consumers are repeatedly exposed to food packages with
varying degrees of color saturation, from vivid and vibrant (high sa-
turation) to muted and washed-out (low saturation). However, vivid or
muted colors do not, at least anecdotally, appear to be evenly dis-
tributed among all types of packaged food products. Rather, un-
healthful foods are often displayed in vivid, highly saturated packages,
while healthful foods are often showcased in muted, less color-saturated
packages. Could repeated exposures to chips, candies, and sodas dis-
played in vivid, highly saturated packages cause consumers to con-
ceptually link vivid, highly saturated colors with less healthful foods?
Could such a conceptual link unknowingly bias consumers' evaluation
of packaged food items? Would all consumers be equally affected by
such a bias? Following the perspective of Bublitz et al. (2013) that it is
critical for researchers to identify, and for consumers and marketers to
understand, any factor that may undermine the nutritional assessment
of food, we attempt to answer these questions.
In this research, we investigate and identify a previously unknown
bias that affects consumers' perceptions of food healthfulness, the vivid
packaging equals unhealthful heuristic. While previous research has
identified how color can bias consumers' perceptions of food attributes
(Huang & Lu, 2016; Levy, Riis, Sonnenberg, Barraclough, & Thorndike,
2012; Mai, Symmank, & Seeberg-Elverfeldt, 2016; Temple et al., 2011),
this research investigates how one important parameter1 of color, sa-
turation, or the vividness or purity of a color hue, biases food health-
fulness perceptions. Across four experiments, we demonstrate that
package color saturation can influence consumers' perceptions of food
healthfulness across a variety of color hues. Further, we reveal that the
heuristic affects healthfulness perceptions of both healthful and un-
healthful products, and we provide evidence that conceptual fluency
accounts for the relationship between package color saturation and
healthfulness perceptions. We also examine how the concepts of
package color vividness and unhealthfulness may have become asso-
ciated, and we identify subjective nutrition knowledge and restrained
eating behavior as moderating factors that respectively weaken or en-
hance the effects of the vivid packaging equals unhealthful heuristic on
consumers' food perceptions.

☆
This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.
⁎
Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: jmead@uwf.edu (J.A. Mead), wrricherson@salisbury.edu (R. Richerson).
1
As noted in Labrecque and Milne (2012) and Labrecque, Patrick, and Milne (2013), saturation (vividness, sometimes also referred to as intensity or purity) is one of several color
appearance parameters. A color's saturation refers to the amount of neutral gray “mixed” into a hue. A color's hue refers to its tone, or place on the color wheel. A color's lightness
measures the relative amount of white or black that has been “mixed” into a given hue. While at first glance these terms may appear somewhat interchangeable, they refer to specific
elements of color appearance.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2017.08.015
Received 31 January 2017; Received in revised form 16 August 2017; Accepted 17 August 2017
Available online 01 September 2017
0148-2963/ Published by Elsevier Inc.
J.A. Mead, R. Richerson
Our work contributes to the literature in several ways. First, we
identify the unknown and distinct effect of one specific element of
color, color saturation, on consumer outcomes, broadening our under-
standing of how specific color elements affect consumers' perceptions.
Second, we theoretically investigate and empirically demonstrate that
conceptual fluency is the mechanism underlying the effect. In doing so,
we advance the color literature by demonstrating how a color asso-
ciation (vivid equals unhealthful) can feel accurate and expected within
a context (indulgent food), thereby influencing consumers' perceptions.
Third, we support this theorizing by demonstrating two boundary
conditions of the vividness equals unhealthful heuristic. Fourth, we
advance the food well-being literature by identifying an unknown
heuristic that affects food well-being. In doing so, we contribute to the
work of other researchers who have connected learned color associa-
tions to substantively important outcomes (e.g., Elliot, Maier, Moller,
Friedman, & Meinhardt, 2007). It is our hope that with an increased
awareness of this bias, consumers may be better positioned to correct
for its effect. Finally, for food marketers, we provide new insights into
factors that influence consumer evaluations of their products, allowing
these marketers to make more informed use of color saturation in
package designs (Bublitz & Peracchio, 2015).
The remainder of this manuscript proceeds as follows. Section 2
provides a brief conceptual review in the areas of package design and
color as they relate to food item perceptions. Further, we draw from
research in memory, conceptual fluency, restrained eating, and sub-
jective knowledge to develop our hypotheses. Section 3 details our
experimental work and findings. Section 4 offers conclusions, limita-
tions, and potential areas of further research.
2. Conceptual background
2.1. The influence of package cues and color in biased food judgments
Many consumers lack the knowledge, time, or motivation to process
nutritional information deliberately and accurately (Cornish & Moraes,
2015; Raghunathan, Naylor, & Hoyer, 2006). As such, consumers often
employ evaluative shortcuts or heuristics, triggered by product or
packaging cues, to inform food purchase decisions (Bublitz et al., 2013).
However, such heuristics can systematically bias consumers' judgments,
often with negative outcomes for consumer well-being. For example,
heuristics can lead consumers to infer that organic foods are healthful
(Sundar & Kardes, 2015), assume unhealthful foods are filling (Suher,
Raghunathan, & Hoyer, 2016), equate nutrition information displayed
in green with healthfulness (De Bock, Pandelaere, & Van Kenhove,
2013), or misjudge the healthfulness of products in portion control
packages (i.e., small 100 calorie packs; Coelho do Vale,
Pieters, & Zeelenberg, 2008; Scott, Nowlis, Mandel, & Morales, 2008).
Prior research has demonstrated that certain package colors or color
properties of food packaging can lead to biased judgments about a
food's attributes and can affect related behaviors. For example, con-
sumers perceive food in red-colored packaging as sweeter than food in
blue or green packaging (Huang & Lu, 2015) and as less healthful than
food presented in blue-colored packaging (Huang & Lu, 2016). Simi-
larly, consumers have been found to associate green labels with
healthful foods (Temple et al., 2011) and red labels with unhealthful
foods (Levy et al., 2012). Research has also demonstrated that con-
sumers perceive darker colors as heavy, which can lead consumers to
assess food items as calorically heavy, affecting perceptions of food
healthfulness and taste (Mai et al., 2016). In total, it seems clear that
consumers often infer certain food item attributes based on package
color cues, yet, the specific influence of package color saturation re-
mains unknown.
Vivid, highly saturated colors can generate arousal (Gorn et al.,
1997) and perceptions of excitement (Aaker, 1997; Labrecque & Milne,
2012). Therefore, it is not surprising that marketers frequently use such
colors on the packages of unhealthful foods. As a result, consumers may
11
Journal of Business Research 82 (2018) 10–18
have repeatedly been exposed to unhealthful foods presented in vivid
packages, and those exposures may have created a previously uni-
dentified association between the two concepts (Elliot et al., 2007).
Further, perhaps to evoke a contrast with unhealthful foods packaged in
vivid colors (Babin & Babin, 2001), many food marketers appear to
favor muted, less color-saturated packages for more healthful packaged
foods. Given that food item assessment, choice, and consumption are
tied to consumers' well-being and health (Bublitz et al., 2013;
Koenigstorfer, Groeppel-Klein, & Kamm, 2014), and that well-being and
health are areas of significant theoretical and substantive focus, we
attempt to address how package color saturation can bias consumer
perceptions and potentially undermine the pursuit of health goals.
Specifically, we propose that vivid, highly color-saturated packaging
may prime the concept of unhealthful foods in consumers' memory,
which may bias their perceptions of a food item.
2.2. Memory and consumer perceptions
Marketers have long recognized that memory plays a key role in
consumer choice and decision-making (Bettman, 1979). For example,
concepts stored in memory can be activated or primed to affect product
choice and other consumer responses (Sela & Shiv, 2009). Further, re-
search has shown that memory activations spread through networks of
associations, linking seemingly unrelated concepts, like vivid colors and
unhealthfulness, together in chains of connectedness (Balota & Lorch,
1986). Even seemingly unrelated concepts can become connected
through repeated and frequent co-occurrences (Berger & Fitzsimons,
2008; Elliot et al., 2007). Indeed, researchers have uncovered memory
connections among color hues and concepts. For example, consumers
often perceive the color green as positive and the color red as negative
(De Bock et al., 2013). Consumers' association between green labels and
healthful foods (Temple et al., 2011) and red labels with unhealthful
foods (Levy et al., 2012) may be driven in part by consumers' associa-
tion of green with “safety” or “go” and red with “risk” and “stop”
(Koenigstorfer et al., 2014; Schuldt, 2013). Similarly, we propose that
consumers have encoded a link between package color saturation and
unhealthfulness in memory. Thus, when consumers see foods packaged
in vivid colors, the concept of indulgent, unhealthful foods may also be
retrieved and passed into working memory, which may influence con-
sumers' perceptions of the food. As such, we contend that:
H1. Consumers will perceive food items as less (more) healthful if they
are displayed in packaging with higher (lower) color saturation.
2.3. Conceptual fluency
Further, when memory associations are frequently encountered and
reinforced, the association between two stimuli may begin to evoke a
sense of conceptual fluency (Berger & Fitzsimons, 2008; Lee & Labroo,
2004). When associations are conceptually fluent to consumers, the
associations fit with what consumers already know about the world
around them (Kidwell, Farmer, & Hardesty, 2013). Fluent concepts and
associations feel familiar and accurate (Whittlesea, 1993), and fluent
associations are easily processed, categorized, and integrated into
consumers' established networks of associations (Winkielman, Schwarz,
Fazendeiro, & Reber, 2003).
Previous research has demonstrated that a sense of conceptual flu-
ency can result from recent or frequent exposures to stimuli
(Berger & Fitzsimons, 2008; Lee & Labroo, 2004). However, recent and
frequent exposure can also result in a priming effect, when two stimuli
are presented together, which can indicate the presence of such an
association. Yet, the influence of conceptual fluency goes beyond that of
a priming effect alone (Alter & Oppenheimer, 2009; Schwarz et al.,
1991). Primed associations that are also conceptually fluent are more
likely to be perceived as true and accurate (Alter & Oppenheimer,
2009). As such, the sense of truth and accuracy that accompanies
J.A. Mead, R. Richerson
conceptual fluency may dissuade consumers from further elaborating
on the validity of a primed association. Therefore, a sense of conceptual
fluency is not only indicative of the retrieval of information from
memory (likely due to a priming effect), but also a conceptual fit be-
tween the retrieved information and the particular context at hand.
Taken together, when consumers encounter foods in vivid, highly
color-saturated packaging, we expect two responses occur. First, the
associated concept of unhealthfulness is activated from memory.
Second, feelings of conceptual fluency and accuracy are experienced.
That is, when seemingly unhealthful foods are presented in vivid
packaging, the pairing of an unhealthful food with a vivid package feels
right to consumers as the pairing aligns with previous experiences and
expectations (Whittlesea, Jacoby, & Girard, 1990). The two responses
work together to affect perceptions, as the feeling of accuracy dis-
courages consumers from more carefully processing package informa-
tion to determine if the unhealthfulness assumption is correct. There-
fore, we predict:
H2. Conceptual fluency mediates the relationship between consumer's
perception of food healthfulness and package color saturation.
Effects like the vivid equals unhealthful heuristic can undermine
consumer intentions to eat healthful foods. As such, to advance con-
sumer food well-being, it is important to understand factors that may
enhance or weaken the vivid equals unhealthful heuristic in addition to
the underlying process by which it operates. In the sections that follow,
we explore two such moderating factors, subjective nutrition knowl-
edge and restrained eating behavior.
2.4. The moderating effect of subjective knowledge
Subjective knowledge broadly refers to one's self-assessed knowl-
edge and evaluative skills in a domain (Alba & Hutchinson, 2000;
Brucks, 1985; Park, Mothersbaugh, & Feick, 1994). We contend that a
high level of subjective nutrition knowledge weakens the vivid equals
unhealthful heuristic for two reasons. First, consumers with higher le-
vels of subjective knowledge rely less on marketer-supplied evaluations
of products than do other consumers (Brucks, 1985). Instead, these
consumers employ their own judgment criteria when assessing products
(Brucks, 1985; Moorman, Diehl, Brinberg, & Kidwell, 2004). As sub-
jective knowledge is associated with perceptions of ability (Brucks,
1985), consumers with higher levels of subjective nutrition knowledge
should ignore less diagnostic but easily accessible incidental cues, like
package color saturation (Mackenzie & Spreng, 1992; Petty & Cacioppo,
1986). Further, as incidental cues are often less associated with specific
product attributes (Mackenzie & Spreng, 1992), consumers with higher
levels of subjective nutrition knowledge should form weaker associa-
tions between package color saturation and food healthfulness, which
should diminish the conceptual fluency they experience when they
encounter less healthful food in vivid packaging (Winkielman et al.,
2003).
Second, consumers with higher levels of subjective knowledge may
not be as exposed to unhealthful foods in vivid packaging as other
consumers. While exposure is an incidental byproduct of shopping,
research suggests that due to a need for consistency between their
knowledge and behavior, consumers with higher levels of subjective
nutrition knowledge tend to concentrate their shopping in areas of
supermarkets that are more likely to contain healthful foods (Moorman
et al., 2004). Thus, the vivid equals unhealthful mental association may
not be as frequently reinforced among consumers with higher levels of
subjective nutrition knowledge. Therefore, we predict that:
H3. Subjective nutrition knowledge attenuates the relationship
between vivid package colors and food healthfulness by reducing
perceptions of conceptual fluency.
12
Journal of Business Research 82 (2018) 10–18
2.5. The moderating effect of restrained eating
Conversely, we expect that consumers who exhibit restrained eating
behavior are more susceptible to the vivid packaging equals unhealthful
food heuristic. Restrained eaters represent a group of consumers who
make deliberate efforts to combat their internal feelings of hunger to
control their intake of calories, often in pursuit of weight loss goals
(Federoff, Polivy, & Herman, 1997). To that end, restrained eaters at-
tempt to disregard their desires for specific, often indulgent, foods. To
control their caloric intake, restrained eaters tend to devote consider-
able attention to external food cues, like packaging (Schachter,
Goldman, & Gordon, 1968; Tom & Rucker, 1975). Therefore, restrained
eaters should be more likely to attend to and evaluate package elements
when assessing the healthfulness of foods. Thus, they may have stronger
associations between packaging color saturation and food healthful-
ness, which should strengthen the vivid packaging equals unhealthful
heuristic.
Further, restrained eaters' constant attention to food choices may
leave them in a state of general cognitive depletion (Scott et al., 2008).
Depletion is associated with an increased use of heuristics or judgment
shortcuts in evaluation (Shah & Oppenheimer, 2008), and due to cog-
nitive depletion, restrained eaters may lack the cognitive resources to
deliberate about the accuracy of the vivid packaging equals unhealthful
food association at times of evaluation and food choice. In total, re-
strained eaters are likely more aware of subtle food package cues which
may indicate product healthfulness, such as color saturation, while also
being more likely to rely on heuristic judgments when evaluating
packaged food, due to a sense of conceptual fluency
(Whittlesea & Leboe, 2000). As such, we predict that:
H4. The main effect of package color saturation on food healthfulness
perceptions will be increased among restrained eaters.
3. Experimental materials and methods.
We provide support for these hypotheses using online and con-
trolled laboratory experiments with both student and Mturk samples. In
experiment 1, results indicate that consumers who viewed a food item
displayed in a vivid, highly color-saturated package perceived the food
item as significantly less healthful than consumers who viewed the food
item in a muted, less color-saturated package. Experiment 2 identifies
conceptual fluency as the meditating psychological mechanism re-
sponsible for the vivid packaging equals unhealthful heuristic and ex-
tends the generalizability of the effect in the context of a different
packaged food product (potato chips). Experiment 3 replicates our
mediation result and demonstrates a moderated mediation effect, such
that consumers with higher levels of subjective nutrition knowledge are
less likely to rely on the vivid equals unhealthful heuristic when as-
sessing packaged food products. Finally, experiment 4 demonstrates
that restrained eaters are more affected by the vivid packaging equals
unhealthful heuristic than unrestrained eaters. A description of the
stimuli used throughout this research immediately follows.
3.1. Experimental stimuli creation and pretests
To create our experimental stimuli, we searched for packaged food
brands in four steps. First, to address potential bias from previous
product experience, several food brands were identified that were likely
unfamiliar to our sample population. Next, from among the considered
brands, we selected brands with moderate levels of color saturation in
their package designs. With moderate saturation levels, a package's
color saturation level could be digitally increased or decreased while
remaining within the saturation norms for the product category. Then,
we narrowed down the brands to only include foods whose packages
minimally displayed the food itself, as food color has been shown to
influence a variety of consumer perceptions (Labrecque et al., 2013).
J.A. Mead, R. Richerson
Finally, among remaining brands, we selected one ostensibly less
healthful packaged food category, potato chips, and an ostensibly more
healthful packaged food category, nutrition bars, to increase the gen-
eralizability of the experimental results across different food categories.
We then conducted a pretest to confirm that the selected brands
(“Maui Style” brand potato chips and “Frank*” brand nutrition bars)
were unfamiliar to the research participant pool and that the product
categories were perceived to be significantly different in healthfulness.
Ninety-five undergraduate business students from a large Southeastern
University completed a lab study to satisfy a research requirement.
First, participants viewed an image of each brand's package and rated
each food item on perceived familiarity via a 3-item, 7-point Likert
scale (“I am very familiar with this exact product,” “I eat this exact
product often,” “I see this exact product frequently when shopping”;
αchips = 0.92, αbars = 0.88). As intended, one-sample t-tests indicated
that perceived familiarity for each food item was significantly below the
scale midpoint of 4 (t(94) = − 14.41, p < 0.001; Mchips famil-
iarity = 1.94, SD = 1.39) and (t(94) = − 17.81, p < 0.001; Mbars famil-
iarity = 1.81, SD = 1.18). Next, participants were asked to rate the
healthfulness of the two product categories, chips and nutrition bars, on
a 5-item, 7-point semantic differential scale adapted from previous re-
search (Raghunathan et al., 2006; Scott et al., 2008): unhealthful/
healthy, tastes bad/tastes good (reverse coded), not nutritious/nu-
tritious, indulgent food/diet food, high in calories/low in calories
(αchips = 0.75, αbars = 0.82). A paired samples t-test indicated that
participants viewed the chips product category as significantly less
healthful than the nutrition bars product category (t(93) = −11.25,
p < 0.001; Mchips = 3.43, SD = 1.18 vs. Mbars = 5.63, SD = 1.60).
Following the pretest, Adobe Photoshop was used to adjust the color
saturation of the packaging of each food brand down (referred to
hereafter as muted) or up (referred to hereafter as the vivid) 50 points
from its original value using the color saturation slider tool. The color
hue and color lightness sliders were left unaltered. Please see Fig. 1 for
details.
We also conducted a second pretest among 128 Mturk participants
located in the U.S. to confirm that consumers perceived differences in
color saturation distinctly from differences in color lightness (Mai et al.,
2016). After sampling an orange hue from our stimuli, we used Adobe
Photoshop to independently adjust the lightness property ± 50 points
and the saturation property by ± 50 points, creating four new color
stimuli – light, dark, vivid, and muted. Study participants viewed and
rated each color (order randomized) on a variety of perceptual di-
mensions which, based on established literature, we expected would
vary between light/dark and vivid/muted colors (Labrecque & Milne,
2012; Mai et al., 2016). As expected, each color was viewed as unique
and was perceived distinctly. For example, the dark color was perceived
as heavier and more masculine, the light color was lighter and more
feminine, and the vivid color was more exciting and arousing. The
muted color was the least strong and vigorous color, while also some-
what light and feminine. Overall, these results align with previous re-
search (Labrecque & Milne, 2012; Mai et al., 2016). Please see Appendix
Table A1 for details.
3.2. Experiment 1
Experiment 1 tests the effect of package color saturation on con-
sumers' perceptions of food healthfulness. We expect consumers to
judge food items with vivid, highly color-saturated packages as less
healthful than food items displayed in muted, less color-saturated
packages.
3.2.1. Method
Fifty-nine undergraduate business students from a large
Southeastern University completed an online experiment to satisfy a
research requirement. Participants were randomly assigned to one of
two experimental conditions (package colors: muted vs. vivid) where
13
Journal of Business Research 82 (2018) 10–18
they viewed an image of “Frank*” brand protein bars. Participants in
the muted condition saw the low saturation version of the “Frank*”
image, while participants in the vivid condition viewed the high sa-
turation version of the “Frank*” image. Apart from the package color
manipulation, the images were identical. After viewing the image,
participants were asked to evaluate the food on a 5-item, 7-point se-
mantic differential scale of perceived healthfulness adapted from pre-
vious research (Raghunathan et al., 2006; Scott et al., 2008): un-
healthful/healthy, tastes bad/tastes good (reverse coded), not
nutritious/nutritious, indulgent food/diet food, high in calories/low in
calories (α = 0.75).
3.2.2. Results
We performed a regression analysis where the muted condition was
coded as 0 and the vivid condition was coded as 1. The results indicate
that participants in the vivid condition perceived the protein bars as
significantly less healthful than participants in the muted condition
(β = − 0.276, t(57) = −2.17, p < 0.05; Mmuted = 6.02, SD = 1.38
vs. Mvivid = 5.26, SD = 1.27), in support of H1.
3.2.3. Discussion
Results demonstrate that consumers perceived a nutrition bar pre-
sented in vivid, more highly color-saturated packaging as a less
healthful food than an otherwise identical nutrition bar presented in
muted, less color-saturated packaging, supporting H1. Thus, consumers,
who aspire to make more healthful packaged food choices may inad-
vertently find their perceptions guided by package color saturation,
which may not be a true reflection of food healthfulness. While these
results are consistent with the larger assertion that through repeated
exposure, consumers have learned to associate vivid packaging with
unhealthful foods, this experiment is unable to speak directly to this
association. As such, in experiment 2, conceptual fluency is investigated
as the mechanism underlying the vivid packaging equals unhealthful
effect. Given that conceptual fluency often manifests through repeated
association and exposure (Berger & Fitzsimons, 2008), and that per-
ceptions of conceptual fluency are also indicative of the retrieval of
information from memory (Alter & Oppenheimer, 2009), if the vivid
packaging equals unhealthful heuristic is the result of a learned asso-
ciation, conceptual fluency should mediate the relationship between
package color saturation and perceptions of food healthfulness.
3.3. Experiment 2
In experiment 2 we investigate conceptual fluency as the meditating
psychological mechanism underlying the vivid packaging equals un-
healthful heuristic. We propose that repeated exposure to unhealthful
foods displayed in vivid, highly color-saturated packaging has created
an association between less healthful foods and vivid, highly color-sa-
turated packages. As such, when less healthful foods (in the case of
experiment 2, potato chips) are displayed in highly color-saturated
packaging, consumers should experience a sense of conceptual fluency,
which is expected to decrease consumers' perceptions of food health-
fulness. This experiment also attempts to replicate the vivid packaging
equals unhealthful main effect identified in experiment 1 with a dif-
ferent food product to increase the generalizability of the results.
3.3.1. Method
One hundred and sixty-two undergraduate students from a large
Southeastern University completed an online experiment to satisfy a
research requirement. Participants were randomly assigned to one of
two experimental conditions (package colors: muted vs. vivid) where
they viewed an image of “Maui Style” brand potato chips. Participants
in the muted condition saw the low saturation version of the “Maui
Style” image, while participants in the vivid condition viewed the high
saturation version of the “Maui Style” image. Apart from the package
color manipulation, the images were identical. As in experiment 1,
J.A. Mead, R. Richerson
Experimental Stimuli
A
-50 Points Color Saturation (Muted) +50 Points Color Saturation (Vivid)
B
-50 Points Color Saturation (Muted) +50 Points Color Saturation (Vivid)
perceived product healthfulness was measured with a 5-item, 7-point
semantic differential scale (α = 0.70). After participants had provided
their healthfulness perceptions, conceptual fluency was measured with
a 12-item, 7-point semantic differential scale adapted from previous
research (Kidwell et al., 2013; Lee & Aaker, 2004; White,
MacDonnell, & Dahl, 2011): unclear/clear, not compelling/compelling,
not credible/credible, did not flow/flowed well, difficult to follow/easy
to follow, not plausible/plausible, not easy to relate to/easy to relate to,
difficult to process/easy to process, difficult to understand/easy to
understand, difficult to comprehend/easy to comprehend, does not
make sense/makes sense, seemed unfamiliar/seemed familiar
(α = 0.93).
3.3.2. Results
Again, a regression analysis indicates that participants in the vivid
condition (coded as 1) perceived the chips as significantly less healthful
than participants in the muted condition (β = − 0.18, t(160) = − 2.38,
p < 0.05; Mmuted = 3.17, SD = 1.27 vs. Mvivid = 2.72, SD = 1.15),
replicating the results from experiment 1.
We used the Process macro (Hayes, 2013) to run a mediation ana-
lysis (model 4), with 5000 bootstrapped samples, where perceived food
healthfulness served as the dependent variable, participants' experi-
mental condition was entered as the independent variable (muted
coded as 0, vivid coded as 1), and conceptual fluency was entered as the
mediator. Results revealed that participants' conceptual fluency par-
tially mediated the relationship between the experimental condition
14
Journal of Business Research 82 (2018) 10–18
Fig. 1. Experimental stimuli.
and perceptions of the healthfulness of the “Maui Style” brand potato
chips as the 95% confidence interval of both the indirect effect (− 0.23
to −0.004) and direct effect (−0.75 to − 0.002) of the experimental
condition excluded zero, in support of H2. That is, participants, per-
ceived the vivid, highly color-saturated image as more conceptually
fluent (Mmuted = 3.84, SD = 1.36 vs. Mvivid = 4.24, SD = 1.33), and
higher levels of fluency were associated with lower levels of perceived
healthfulness when viewing the “Maui Style” brand potato chips. Please
see Fig. 2 for details.
3.3.3. Discussion
Experiment 2 provides additional evidence that consumers use the
color saturation of food packaging to inform their food healthfulness
perceptions. Again, participants who viewed the vivid, highly color-
saturated package of potato chips perceived the chips to be less
healthful than participants who viewed a muted, less color-saturated
bag of chips, suggesting an association between the concepts. Further,
the partial mediation result supports conceptual fluency as the psy-
chological mechanism behind the vivid packaging equals unhealthful
food heuristic. That is, it appears that consumers not only associate
vivid package colors with unhealthfulness, but also experience a sense
of conceptual fluency when an ostensibly indulgent food (potato chips)
is presented in a color saturated package. Therefore, it appears that
when consumers encounter a seemingly indulgent food in a vivid food
package, not only is the concept of unhealthfulness activated in
memory, but also the pairing of a vivid package with an indulgent food
J.A. Mead, R. Richerson
conceptually fits with expectations.
In experiment 3, we explore how subjective nutrition knowledge
moderates the mediation result demonstrated in experiment 2. This
additional variable may account for some of the variance in our model,
given the partial mediation results reported. We expect that consumers
with higher levels of subjective knowledge will have a weaker asso-
ciation between vivid package colors and unhealthful food, thereby
diminishing the sense of conceptual fluency they experience when such
a pairing is encountered. Further, if, as we expect, subjective nutrition
knowledge moderates the link between vivid package colors and con-
ceptual fluency, the results will provide additional support for our ac-
count of conceptual fluency underlying our effect.
3.4. Experiment 3
Experiment 3 tests the moderating role of subjective nutrition
knowledge on consumers' tendency to view food in vivid, highly color-
saturated packages as less healthful than food in muted, less color-sa-
turated packages. We expect that higher levels of subjective nutrition
knowledge attenuate the relationship between package color saturation
and conceptual fluency, which will weaken the main effect of package
vividness on food healthfulness perceptions. Additionally, to extend the
generalizability of the vivid equal unhealthful heuristic, we assess food
healthfulness based on perceptions of specific nutrition information
(e.g., fat, sodium) and employ an Mturk sample.
3.4.1. Method
One hundred thirty-five Mturk participants (mean age = 39.26,
52.6% female) from the U.S. participated in an online survey in ex-
change for a small honorarium. Experiment 3 replicates the design of
experiment 2 with two additions, a 5-item attribute-based measure of
food healthfulness (α = 0.92; 9-point systematic differential scale: very
low in calories/very high in calories, very low in fat/very high in fat,
very low in sodium/very high in sodium, very low in carbohydrates/
very high in carbohydrates, very low in cholesterol/very high in cho-
lesterol) and a measure of subjective nutrition knowledge (“I am more
Experiment 3 – Moderated Mediation Results
15
Journal of Business Research 82 (2018) 10–18
Fig. 2. Experiment 2 - mediation results.
knowledgeable than others about nutrition information,” 7-point Likert
scale, adapted from Moorman et al., 2004).
3.4.2. Results
A regression analysis indicates that participants in the vivid condi-
tion (coded as 1) perceived the chips as marginally less healthful than
participants in the muted condition (β = 0.15, t(133) = 1.76,
p = 0.08; Mmuted = 6.25, SD = 1.64 vs. Mvivid = 6.72, SD = 1.45).
We used the Process macro (Hayes, 2013) to run a moderated
mediation analysis (model 7), with 5000 bootstrapped samples, where
perceived food healthfulness served as the dependent variable, parti-
cipants' experimental condition as the independent variable (muted
coded as 0, vivid coded as 1), conceptual fluency (α = 0.90) as the
mediator, and subjective nutrition knowledge as the moderator.
Results revealed that participants' conceptual fluency fully mediated
the relationship between the experimental condition and perceptions of
the healthfulness of the “Maui Style” brand potato chips, but only
among participants low in subjective nutrition knowledge, that is,
participants with scores below the Johnson-Neyman point of 3.14
(Spiller, Fitzsimons, Lynch, & McClelland, 2013). The 95% confidence
interval of the index of moderated mediation (− 0.23 to − 0.0005)
excluded zero, while the 95% confidence interval of the direct effect
(− 0.13 to 0.89) of participants' experimental condition on to food
healthfulness perceptions included zero, supporting H3 and H4. That is,
the link between vivid, highly color-saturated food packaging and
conceptual fluency (Mmuted = 4.78, SD = 1.45 vs. Mvivid = 5.08,
SD = 1.30) was attenuated among participants with moderate to high
levels subjective of subjective nutrition knowledge. Please see Fig. 3 for
details.
3.4.3. Discussion
Experiment 3 provides additional evidence to support our theo-
rizing that conceptual fluency mediates the relationship between vivid
packaging and unhealthful food perceptions. Further, moderated med-
iation analysis indicates that consumers with higher levels of subjective
nutrition knowledge are less likely to judge a food item based on the
Fig. 3. Experiment 3 – moderated mediation results.
J.A. Mead, R. Richerson
Experiment 4 – Moderation Results
Fig. 4. Experiment 4 – moderation results.
vividness of its packaging. Specifically, the results suggest that the vivid
equals unhealthful mental association does not become as conceptually
fluent for consumers with higher levels of subjective nutrition knowl-
edge. These results support extant research which contends that con-
sumers with higher levels of subjective knowledge are more likely to
rely on their personal judgment criteria when evaluating products
(Brucks, 1985), which should reduce the likelihood of categorizing
foods as healthful or unhealthful based on package vividness. Further,
consumers with higher levels of subjective nutrition knowledge may
exhibit shopping behavior that is less likely to expose them to indulgent
foods in vivid packages (Moorman et al., 2004). Therefore, the asso-
ciation between unhealthful foods and vivid, highly-saturated packa-
ging is not as conceptually fluent. In experiment 4 we continue our
investigation of the vivid packaging equals unhealthful heuristic by
exploring the moderating influence of consumers' self-reported level of
restrained eating behavior on the relationship between package color
saturation and perceived food healthfulness.
3.5. Experiment 4
Experiment 4 tests the moderating role of restrained eating behavior
on consumers' tendency to view food in vivid, highly color-saturated
packages as less healthful than food in muted, less color-saturated
packages. Restrained eaters are expected to pay more attention to in-
cidental package cues yet, due to a state of general depletion (Scott
et al., 2008), be less able to correct for the heuristic bias than unrest-
rained eaters. Therefore, we expect to find a moderating effect of re-
strained eating behavior on the direct effect of package color saturation
on food healthfulness perceptions.
3.5.1. Method
One hundred and thirteen undergraduate business students from a
large Southeastern University completed a lab experiment to satisfy a
research requirement. Participants were randomly assigned to one of
two experimental conditions (package colors: muted vs. vivid) where
they viewed an image of “Maui Style” brand potato chips. Participants
in the muted condition saw the low saturation version of the “Maui
Style” image, while participants in the vivid condition viewed the high
saturation version of the “Maui Style” image. Apart from the color sa-
turation manipulation, the images were identical. Perceived product
healthfulness was measured using the same 5-item, 7-point Likert scale
used in studies 1 and 2 (α = 0.71). Restrained eating was measured
with a 4-item, 7-point Likert scale adapted from previous research
(Herman & Polivy, 1980; Scott et al., 2008; Van Strien, Frijters,
Bergers, & Defares, 1986): “I am currently watching my weight,” “I am
on a diet,” “I make a real effort to eat healthy foods,” “I spend a lot of
time planning what I eat” (α = 0.81).
16
Journal of Business Research 82 (2018) 10–18
3.5.2. Results
Again, regression analysis indicates that participants in the vivid
condition (coded as 1) perceived the chips as significantly less healthful
than participants in the muted condition (coded as 0; β = − 0.19, t
(111) = − 2.01, p < 0.05; Mmuted = 3.71, SD = 1.19 vs.
Mvivid = 3.25, SD = 1.23). To investigate the hypothesis that the effect
of package color saturation would increase among restrained eaters, the
healthfulness measure was regressed on package colors conditions, the
restrained eating measure, and the interaction between package colors
condition and the restrained eating measure. Results indicated that
participants in the vivid condition perceived the chips as significantly
less healthful than participants in the muted condition (β = −0.18, t
(109) = − 2.01, p < 0.05), while the main effect of restrained eating
was non-significant (β = 0.11, t(109) = 0.93, p > 0.30). However,
these main effects are qualified by a significant 2-way interaction be-
tween package colors condition and restrained eating (β = − 0.43, t
(109) = − 3.67, p < 0.001). A spotlight analysis revealed that the
effect of package color saturation was significant for participants with
restrained eating levels above the Johnson-Neyman point of 3.84
(Spiller et al., 2013), in support of H3. As such, the effect of package
color saturation appears to be strongest among consumers with mod-
erate to high levels of self-reported restrained eating behavior. Please
see Fig. 4 for details.
3.5.3. Discussion
Experiment 3 demonstrates the moderating influence of restrained
eating behavior on the vivid packaging equals unhealthful heuristic.
Again, the main effect indicated that consumers tend to perceive food
items in vivid, highly color-saturated packaging as less healthful than
food contained in muted, less color-saturated packaging. However,
moderation analysis indicates that consumers with moderate to high
(vs. lower) levels of restrained eating behavior were significantly more
likely to infer food healthfulness by the level of color saturation on its
packaging, a result theoretically supported by previous research (Scott
et al., 2008). The outcome is likely due to a combination of increased
attention to food items (Schachter et al., 1968; Tom & Rucker, 1975)
and higher levels of psychological depletion (Scott et al., 2008), which
should reduce restrained eaters' likelihood to correct any heuristic
judgments which may form. Based on these moderation results, ex-
periment 4 reveals that design elements as seemingly benign as package
color saturation have the potential to undermine consumers' health
goals, as restrained eaters, who diligently attempt to pay attention to
packaging cues, are most at risk for having their perceptions biased by
the vivid packaging equals unhealthful heuristic.
4. General discussion
4.1. Conclusion
Consumers often struggle to maintain healthful diets (Koenigstorfer
et al., 2014), and biases encountered when evaluating foods can un-
dermine consumers' efforts to be healthy. Uncovering and investigating
these biases are important steps toward helping consumers achieve
results when they choose to be healthy (Bublitz et al., 2013). This re-
search identifies and investigates how one element of food packaging,
color saturation, can bias consumers' food perceptions. Across four
experiments, results demonstrate that consumers appear to associate
vivid, highly color-saturated food packaging with more indulgent, un-
healthful foods. These findings are consistent with our proposal that
through repeated exposure to unhealthful indulgent foods displayed in
vivid, highly color-saturated packaging, consumers have developed a
judgment heuristic (Kahneman & Frederick, 2005) that vivid, highly
color-saturated food packages contain unhealthful foods. Furthermore,
we demonstrate that conceptual fluency partially mediates the re-
lationship between package color saturation and healthfulness percep-
tions. As such, when seemingly indulgent food in vivid packaging is
J.A. Mead, R. Richerson Journal of Business Research 82 (2018) 10–18

encountered, consumers' semantic association with unhealthful food is
activated, the association feels familiar and fluent, and the food is
perceived as unhealthful (Stafford & Grimes, 2012).
Additionally, results demonstrate that higher levels of subjective
nutrition knowledge can weaken the vivid packaging equals un-
healthful heuristic by attenuating the relationship between package
color vividness and conceptual fluency. We contend that consumers
with higher levels of subjective nutrition knowledge are less likely to
accept incidental package cues as diagnostic of food healthfulness and
are less likely to categorize foods in vivid packages as either healthful or
unhealthful based on vividness alone. Further, these consumers may
have had fewer exposures to unhealthful foods in vivid packaging due
to deliberate efforts to maintain consistency between their perceived
knowledge and behavior (Moorman et al., 2004). Conversely, results
indicate that restrained eaters are more likely than unrestrained eaters
to be affected by the vivid packaging equals unhealthful heuristic. First,
higher motivation to attend to and monitor food choices (Schachter
et al., 1968; Tom & Rucker, 1975) means that restrained eaters have
likely spent more time examining food and food packages than un-
restrained eaters. This extra focus should result in a stronger semantic
association between healthfulness and package color saturation
(Berger & Fitzsimons, 2008). Additionally, with higher levels of psy-
chological depletion, restrained eaters should also be more likely to rely
on heuristic cues to inform their food healthfulness perceptions (Scott
et al., 2008). Depletion should increase their sensitivity to the semantic
association between unhealthful foods and highly color-saturated
packaging, as fluency effects are strongest when consumers rely on
heuristic processing methods (Fukawa & Niedrich, 2015).
4.2. Limitations
While this research provides repeated experimental evidence for the
presence of a vivid packaging equals unhealthful heuristic when eval-
uating food items, this work is not without limitations. First, our results
do not address the influence of packaging color saturation on con-
sumers' frequency of purchase, frequency of consumption, or quantity
of consumption. However, as perceptions tend to influence behaviors, it
seems reasonable to expect such effects, though further research is
needed to test these claims. Additionally, since this research asserts that
the vivid packaging equals unhealthful heuristic is the result of a
learned semantic association between unhealthful foods and highly
color-saturated packaging, these results may not generalize to con-
sumers in other countries or from different cultures (Brunsø & Grunert,
1998). For example, if unhealthful foods are less prevalent or less likely
to be displayed in highly color-saturated packaging relative to healthful
foods in a given part of the world, the effects demonstrated in this re-
search would likely weaken or even vanish.
4.3. Further research
The link between color saturation and packaged food healthfulness
may represent one of many learned associations consumers have
formed with food. For example, if marketers often favor primary colors
in their packaging of indulgent foods, or disproportionally display or-
ganic foods in packages colored in certain hues (e.g., green or brown),
consumers may have similarly learned to associate primary colors or
certain color hues with healthfulness, taste, or heaviness. Researchers
may also wish to investigate if the vivid packaging equals unhealthful
heuristic extends beyond perceptions to also affect consumers' food
consumption.
Finally, this research explored how the overall color saturation of
food packaging influenced consumer perceptions of a food item.
However, it is possible that individual elements of the package design
could be separately manipulated to produce differential effects on
consumers' food perceptions. For example, research has demonstrated
that when health information is displayed in green, rather than red,
consumers judge the food item as more healthful (Schuldt, 2013). Re-
latedly, research has indicated that vivid, highly saturated colors are
often reflective of high nutritional value in the context of fruits and
vegetables (Goldman, 2003). Therefore, consumers may perceive a
packaged food as more healthful if the package displays the food itself
in vivid, highly saturated colors, while the rest of the package employs
muted, less saturated colors. As such, further research may wish to
explore the more nuanced effects which may emerge if the color sa-
turation of the package and the color saturation of the food item pic-
tured within are manipulated separately.

Appendix A

Table A1
Color perception pretest.⁎

A B C D

Dark Light Vivid Muted

Exciting 2.59bcd 4.12adc 4.77abd 3.15abc
Arousing 2.65bcd 3.97adc 4.52abd 3.11abc
Strong 4.22bcd 3.71adc 4.62abd 3.40abc
Stimulating 2.88bcd 4.25adc 4.98abd 3.30abc
Substantive 3.84b 3.71ac 4.16bd 3.53c
Bright 2.52bcd 4.76adc 5.47abd 3.34acb
Vigorous 3.19bc 3.59adc 4.55abd 3.00cb
Feminine 2.52bcd 4.54adc 3.81ab 4.05ab
Light 2.50bcd 5.13adc 4.15ab 4.40ab
Soft 2.50bcd 4.87ac 3.35abd 4.73ac
Masculine 4.64bcd 3.08ac 3.77abd 3.20ac
Heavy 4.64bcd 2.70ac 3.48abd 2.82ac
Hefty 4.20bcd 2.95ac 3.65abd 2.84ac
Dull 4.30bc 2.99ad 2.71ad 4.22cb
Sluggish 3.97bcd 2.86ad 2.63ad 3.48acb
7-Point Likert scale. Mean values reported.
⁎
Subscripts denote a significant difference (p < 0.05) between columns on each color perception factor in a paired sample t-test.

17
J.A. Mead, R. Richerson
References
Aaker, J. L. (1997). Dimensions of brand personality. Journal of Marketing Research, 34(3),
347–356.
Alba, J. W., & Hutchinson, J. W. (2000). Knowledge calibration: What consumers know
and what they think they know. Journal of Consumer Research, 27(September),
123–156.
Alter, A. L., & Oppenheimer, D. M. (2009). Uniting the tribes of fluency to form a me-
tacognitive nation. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 13(3), 219–235.
Babin, B. J., & Babin, L. (2001). Seeking something different? A model of schema typi-
cality, consumer affect, purchase intentions and perceived shopping value. Journal of
Business Research, 54(2), 89–96.
Balota, D. A., & Lorch, R. F. (1986). Depth of automatic spreading activation: Mediated
priming effects in pronunciation but not in lexical decision. Journal of Experimental
Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 12(3), 336–345.
Berger, J., & Fitzsimons, G. (2008). Dogs on the street, Pumas on your feet: How cues in
the environment influence product evaluation and choice. Journal of Marketing
Research, 45(1), 1–14.
Bettman, J. R. (1979). Memory factors in consumer choice: A review. Journal of
Marketing, 43(2), 37–53.
Brucks, M. (1985). The effects of product class knowledge on information search beha-
vior. Journal of Consumer Research, 12(1), 1–16.
Brunsø, K., & Grunert, K. G. (1998). Cross-cultural similarities and differences in shopping
for food. Journal of Business Research, 42(2), 145–150.
Bublitz, M. G., & Peracchio, L. A. (2015). Applying industry practices to promote healthy
foods: An exploration of positive marketing outcomes. Journal of Business Research,
68(12), 2484–2493.
Bublitz, M. G., Peracchio, L. A., Andreasen, A. R., Kees, J., Kidwell, B., Miller, E. G., ...
Vallen, B. (2013). Promoting positive change: Advancing the food well-being para-
digm. Journal of Business Research, 66(8), 1211–1218.
Coelho do Vale, R., Pieters, R., & Zeelenberg, M. (2008). Flying under the radar: Perverse
package size effects on consumption self-regulation. Journal of Consumer Research,
35(3), 380–390.
Cornish, L. S., & Moraes, C. (2015). The impact of consumer confusion on nutrition lit-
eracy and subsequent dietary behavior. Psychology & Marketing, 32(5), 558–574.
De Bock, T., Pandelaere, M., & Van Kenhove, P. (2013). When colors backfire: The impact
of color cues on moral judgment. Journal of Consumer Psychology, 23(3), 341–348.
Elliot, A. J., Maier, M. A., Moller, A. C., Friedman, R., & Meinhardt, J. (2007). Color and
psychological functioning: The effect of red on performance attainment. Journal of
Experimental Psychology: General, 136(1), 154.
Federoff, I. C., Polivy, J., & Herman, C. P. (1997). The effect of pre-exposure to food cues
on the eating behavior of restrained and unrestrained eaters. Appetite, 28(1), 33–47.
Fukawa, N., & Niedrich, R. W. (2015). A fluency heuristic account of supraliminal prime
effects on product preference. Psychology and Marketing, 32(11), 1061–1078.
Goldman, I. L. (2003). Recognition of fruit and vegetables as healthful: Vitamins and
phytonutrients. HortTechnology, 13(2), 252–258.
Gorn, G. J., Chattopadhyay, A., Yi, T., & Dahl, D. W. (1997). Effects of color as an ex-
ecutional cue in advertising: They're in the shade. Management Science, 43(10),
1387–1400.
Hayes, A. F. (2013). Introduction to mediation, moderation, and conditional process analysis:
A regression-based approach. Guilford Press.
Herman, C. P., & Polivy, J. (1980). Restrained eating. In A. J. Stunkard (Ed.). Obesity (pp.
208–225). Philadelphia: Saunders.
Huang, L., & Lu, J. (2015). Eat with your eyes: Package color influences the expectation of
food taste and healthiness moderated by external eating. Marketing Management
Journal, 25(2), 71–87.
Huang, L., & Lu, J. (2016). The impact of package color and the nutrition content labels
on the perception of food healthiness and purchase intention. Journal of Food Products
Marketing, 22(2), 191–218.
Kahneman, D., & Frederick, S. (2005). A model of heuristic judgment. In K. J. Holyoak, &
R. G. Morrison (Eds.). The Cambridge handbook of thinking and reasoning (pp. 267–
293). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Kidwell, B., Farmer, A., & Hardesty, D. M. (2013). Getting liberals and conservatives to go
green: Political ideology and congruent appeals. Journal of Consumer Research, 40(2),
350–367.
Koenigstorfer, J., Groeppel-Klein, A., & Kamm, F. (2014). Healthful food decision making
in response to traffic light color-coded nutrition labeling. Journal of Public
Policy & Marketing, 33(1), 65–77.
Labrecque, L. I., & Milne, G. R. (2012). Exciting red and competent blue: The importance
of color in marketing. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 40(5), 711–727.
Labrecque, L. I., Patrick, V. M., & Milne, G. R. (2013). The marketers' prismatic palette: A
review of color research and future directions. Psychology and Marketing, 30(2),
187–202.
Lee, A. Y., & Aaker, J. L. (2004). Bringing the frame into focus: The influence of reg-
ulatory fit on processing fluency and persuasion. Journal of Personality and Social
Psychology, 86(2), 205–218.
Lee, A. Y., & Labroo, A. A. (2004). The effect of conceptual and perceptual fluency on
brand evaluation. Journal of Marketing Research, 41(2), 151–165.
Levy, D. E., Riis, J., Sonnenberg, L. M., Barraclough, S. J., & Thorndike, A. N. (2012).
18
Journal of Business Research 82 (2018) 10–18
Food choices of minority and low-income employees: A cafeteria intervention.
American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 43(3), 240–248.
Mackenzie, S. B., & Spreng, R. A. (1992). How does motivation moderate the impact of
central and peripheral processing on brand attitudes and intentions? Journal of
Consumer Research, 18(4), 519–529.
Mai, R., Symmank, C., & Seeberg-Elverfeldt, B. (2016). Light and pale colors in food
packaging: When does this package cue signal superior healthiness or inferior tasti-
ness? Journal of Retailing, 92(4), 426–444.
Moorman, C., Diehl, K., Brinberg, D., & Kidwell, B. (2004). Subjective knowledge, search
locations, and consumer choice. Journal of Consumer Research, 31(December),
673–680.
Park, C. W., Mothersbaugh, D. L., & Feick, L. (1994). Consumer knowledge assessment.
Journal of Consumer Research, 21(1), 71–82.
Petty, R. E., & Cacioppo, J. T. (1986). The elaboration likelihood model of persuasion.
Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 19, 123–205.
Raghunathan, R., Naylor, R. W., & Hoyer, W. D. (2006). The unhealthy = tasty intuition
and its effects on taste inferences, enjoyment, and choice of food products. Journal of
Marketing, 70(4), 170–184.
Schachter, S., Goldman, R., & Gordon, A. (1968). Effects of fear, food deprivation, and
obesity on eating. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 10(2), 91–97.
Schuldt, J. P. (2013). Does green mean healthy? Nutrition label color affects perceptions
of healthfulness. Health Communication, 28(8), 814–821.
Schwarz, N., Bless, H., Strack, F., Klumpp, G., Rittenauer-Schatka, H., & Simons, A.
(1991). Ease of retrieval as information: Another look at the availability heuristic.
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 61(2), 195–202.
Scott, M. L., Nowlis, S. M., Mandel, N., & Morales, A. C. (2008). The effects of reduced
food size and package size on the consumption behavior of restrained and unrest-
rained eaters. Journal of Consumer Research, 35(3), 391–405.
Sela, A., & Shiv, B. (2009). Unraveling priming: When does the same prime activate a goal
versus a trait? Journal of Consumer Research, 36(3), 418–433.
Shah, A. K., & Oppenheimer, D. M. (2008). Heuristics made easy: An effort-reduction
framework. Psychological Bulletin, 134(2), 207–222.
Spiller, S. A., Fitzsimons, G. J., Lynch, J. G., & McClelland, G. H. (2013). Spotlights,
floodlights, and the magic number zero: Simple effects tests in moderated regression.
Journal of Marketing Research, 50(2), 277–288.
Stafford, T., & Grimes, A. (2012). Memory enhances the mere exposure effect. Psychology
and Marketing, 29(12), 995–1003.
Suher, J., Raghunathan, R., & Hoyer, W. D. (2016). Eating healthy or feeling empty? How
the “healthy = less filling” intuition influences satiety. Journal of the Association for
Consumer Research, 1(1), 26–40.
Sundar, A., & Kardes, F. R. (2015). The role of perceived variability and the health halo
effect in nutritional inference and consumption. Psychology and Marketing, 32(5),
512–521.
Temple, J. L., Johnson, K. M., Archer, K., LaCarte, A., Yi, C., & Epstein, L. H. (2011).
Influence of simplified nutrition labeling and taxation on laboratory energy intake in
adults. Appetite, 57(1), 184–192.
Tom, G., & Rucker, M. (1975). Fat, full, and happy: Effects of food deprivation, external
cues, and obesity on preference ratings, consumption, and buying intentions. Journal
of Personality and Social Psychology, 32(5), 761–766.
Van Strien, T., Frijters, J. E., Bergers, G., & Defares, P. B. (1986). The Dutch Eating
Behavior Questionnaire (DEBQ) for assessment of restrained, emotional, and external
eating behavior. International Journal of Eating Disorders, 5(2), 295–315.
White, K., MacDonnell, R., & Dahl, D. W. (2011). It's the mind-set that matters: The role of
construal level and message framing in influencing consumer efficacy and con-
servation behaviors. Journal of Marketing Research, 48(3), 472–485.
Whittlesea, B. W. (1993). Illusions of familiarity. Journal of Experimental Psychology:
Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 19(6), 1235–1253.
Whittlesea, B. W., & Leboe, J. P. (2000). The heuristic basis of remembering and classi-
fication: Fluency, generation, and resemblance. Journal of Experimental Psychology:
General, 129(1), 84–106.
Whittlesea, B. W. A., Jacoby, L. L., & Girard, K. (1990). Illusions of immediate memory:
Evidence of an attributional basis for feelings of familiarity and perceptual quality.
Journal of Memory and Language, 29(6), 716–732.
Winkielman, P., Schwarz, N., Fazendeiro, T., & Reber, R. (Eds.). (2003). The hedonic
marking of processing fluency: Implications for evaluative judgment. Mahwah, NJ:
Erlbaum.
James A. Mead is an Assistant Professor of Marketing at the University of West Florida.
His research interests include emotion, memory, pricing, satiation, and consumer well-
being. James earned his PhD from the University of Kentucky in 2015. Before returning to
school to complete his PhD, James spent four years in corporate marketing research,
where he provided data-driven strategic recommendation to top management.
Rob Richerson is an Assistant Professor of Marketing at Salisbury University. His work
focuses on food consumption and choice, as well as other areas of transformative con-
sumer research. Rob earned his PhD from the University of Kentucky in 2014. Before
completing his PhD, Rob trained in management at a national firm and worked in sales.
When not working, Rob enjoys spending time with his wife and two children.