Children's use of on‐package nutritional claim information

Surprisingly little is known about how children respond to marketer‐provided information in retail environments and how such information might impact decisions. In this paper, we investigated children's responses to a particular type of marketer‐provided information—on‐package nutritional claim information. Using a 4 × 2 between‐subjects experiment, we examined whether 8‐ to 12‐year‐old children are aware of this information, whether it influences their choices, and whether this influence is moderated by the type of claim and/or exposure to an in‐school health curriculum. Our findings reveal that this information impacts choices in an intriguing way—it has a backlash effect, causing children to make un healthier choices when on‐package claims are present in the choice set. This negative effect is most pronounced for general claims. Further, the negative impact of on‐package claims is reduced, but not eliminated, by health education. Implications for designing more effective ways to communicate nutritional information are discussed.