Low-literate Consumers Research Articles

Effects of pictorial product-warnings on low-literate consumers

Previous research has found that low-literate consumers tend to rely heavily on pictures to process marketplace information. The current study investigates the conditions under which pictures in product-warning statements become detrimental or beneficial for information processing among consumers with varying levels of literacy. The findings suggest that, relative to consumers with higher literacy levels, consumers with lower literacy levels display lower comprehension levels and make more errors when they view incongruent pictures in product-warning statements. The results also show that, consumers with lower literacy levels benefit significantly more in comprehension and in reduction of errors relative to consumers with higher literacy levels, with congruent pictures without text. A concluding discussion addresses theoretical and practical implications as well as future research directions on low-literate, low-income consumer behavior and subsistence consumer behavior.

Studying low-literate consumers through experimental methods: Implications for subsistence marketplaces

This paper examines the challenges involved in the design and administration of experiments with low-literate adults in business research, and derives implications for subsistence marketplaces. A brief review of the research methods used for studying low-literate adults in business, as well as other fields such as anthropology, sociology, behavioral economics, education, and health, suggests the lack of experimental approaches. Traditional experiments that employ literate adults are compared with those that employ low-literate adults. Using this review and authors' experiences spanning over a decade, the paper develops insights for using experimental methods to study subsistence marketplaces.

Educational Content and Health Literacy Issues in Direct-to-Consumer Advertising of Pharmaceuticals

Direct-to-consumer (DTC) pharmaceutical advertisements have been analyzed in many ways, but richer conceptualizations of health literacy have been largely absent from this research. With approximately half of U.S. adults struggling to understand health information, it is important to consider consumers' health literacy when analyzing DTC advertisements. This project, framed by the health belief model, analyzed 82 advertisements. Advertisements provided some kinds of educational content (e.g., drugs' medical benefits) but typically failed to offer other useful information (e.g., other strategies for dealing with conditions). Issues likely to be barriers to low health literate consumers, such as nonstandard text formatting, are common.

Are low-literate and high-literate consumers different? Applying resource-matching theory to ad processing across literacy levels

This research investigates whether low-literate consumers process written advertisements differently than high-literate consumers do. Consistent with resource-matching theory (RMT), the first experiment reveals that, unlike high-literate processors, when low-literate processors read ads of moderate complexity, involvement with the ad does not affect processing. The second experiment extends RMT's applicability to both low- and high-literate consumers by demonstrating that low-literate processors' reading outcomes mirror those of high-literate processors when ads are written to reflect their reading capability.

Understanding and Facilitating the Usage of Nutritional Labels by Low-Literate Consumers

This research examines how low-literate consumers use nutritional labels on packages and the ways such usage can be facilitated. Using research on nutritional labeling and on low-literate consumers as bases, the authors design an experiment to test specific hypotheses about the effects of graphic versus nongraphic formats on usage of nutrition information by consumers with different levels of literacy. The authors discuss implications of the findings for further research and for public policy.

Health Literacy for Improved Health Outcomes: Effective Capital in the Marketplace

Improving consumers’ health literacy addresses many of the rising problems in healthcare. We empirically support a reconceptualization of health literacy as a social and cultural practice through which adults leverage a range of skills as well as social networks to meet their needs. Pierre Bourdieu's “theory of practice” guides this reconceptualization and facilitates articulation of the array of strategies used in the complex healthcare marketplace. We focus on the low literate consumers’ alternative forms of capital and the providers’ recognition and support. The findings, from an emergent research design consisting of depth interviews with low literate consumers and healthcare providers, suggest a critical, reflective approach that enhances health literacy, empowers consumers to become partners in their own healthcare programs, and improves health outcomes.

The Low Literate Consumer

Almost half of all consumers read below a sixth-grade level, yet we know little about how these consumers get their needs met in the marketplace. The goal of this qualitative study was to examine the intersection of literacy skills and consumption activities and identify the coping strategies that low literate consumers employ. Those informants who could challenge the stigma of low literacy and employ a range of coping skills were better able to get their needs met. Thus, consumer literacy is conceptualized as a social practice that includes reading and writing skills but also involves the ability to manage one's identity and leverage personal, situational, and social coping skills.