Does the Eco-Score lead to a halo effect? Influence of a sustainability label on product perceptions and purchase intention

Abstract

The Eco-Score is an approach to make the environmental impact of a food product visible using color-coded labeling. Previous research has shown the potential of organic and ethical labels to influence consumers’ perceptions of other product features – what is called the halo effect. Using an online questionnaire with a between-subject design and a representative sample for Germany (N = 1010), we examined whether the Eco-Score might also induce halo effects. Therefore, we evaluated how consumers assess the perceived environmental friendliness, expected tastiness, and perceived healthiness of packaged foods with or without an Eco-Score. We consider three different products (spaghetti, yoghurt, and crisps) in three treatment groups (Eco-Scores A, C, and E) and one control group (no label). For our statistical analyses, we employed repeated-measures ANOVAs and regression-based mediation analyses. Our results show that products are perceived as more (Eco-Score A) or less (Eco-Score E) environmentally friendly when labelled with the Eco-Score and this perception mediates the purchase intention positively or negatively, respectively. Furthermore, our results suggest that the Eco-Score can bias consumer perceptions of other food product characteristics. In particular, the Eco-Score E negatively influences expected tastiness and perceived healthiness, which lowers purchase intention. Regression-based moderation analyses show further that participants with high environmental or health concern are in part more susceptible to positive halo effects. However, overall, the moderator effects are small. The paper extends the literature on halo effects related to food labeling and hence provides important insights on perceptions of food products labelled with a color-coded scoring system. Theoretical and practical implications as well as avenues for future research are discussed.