Restaurant inspection reports are an important source of information for the public to evaluate food safety practices at restaurants. This study examined the effect of information source and reporting format on consumer responses to restaurant inspection reports. The study employed a three (information source: local health department, newspaper, or consumer blog) x three (reporting format: numeric, letter grade, or narrative) full-factorial experimental design. Results showed that perceived source credibility was significantly different among the information sources but consumer responses to the inspection results from the three sources were similar. In addition, the reporting format had a significant effect on both message strength and consumer responses. Restaurant inspection results reported in a narrative format elicited the strongest perceived message strength and consumer responses.
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Choi et al. (2013) studied this question.