Halo Effect in the Food Context

The halo effect is a perceptual bias in which a quality characteristic shapes a person's overall evaluation of a product. In the context of food, it's often leveraged to influence consumer behavior by aligning with beliefs and food preferences, increasing willingness to buy, and affecting food consumption. Adopting the PRISMA approach, this review analyzed 64 research articles in terms of predisposition and behavioral intentions towards food. The halo effect in the food context has five main research streams—“health and nutritional,” “packaging design,” “organic food,” “country of origin” and “food sustainability.” This review also revealed that only around 20% of studies included various sensory analyses and opportunities to taste food. Future research perspectives are: (i) integration of sensory evaluation methodologies with neurophysiological tracking to include emotional valuations and (ii) importance of performing cross‐cultural studies since cultural background plays an important role in food choice.