Choosing or rejecting a food item, does framing matter? And what has sugar to do with it!

The color code of "Traffic Light Labels" (TLL) on food items indicates the amount (e.g., green = low) of fat, saturates, sugar and salt it contains. Consider two ways to select among food items (e.g., two cereal bars) based on their TLLs. You might choose between the two items or you might reject one of the two. Furthermore, differences between choose and reject might be driven more strongly by one factor (e.g., sugar) than by others. In Study 1 our participants made choose or reject decisions between food items with an all-orange TLL (all moderate) and a 2 red/2 green TLL (2 negative/2 positive). Both items had equal energy/caloric content. We found that, independent of the condition (Choose/Reject), participants went home more often with the 2 red/2 green item if sugar was green. This effect was stronger in the Choose than in the Reject condition. In Study 2, we additionally manipulated the energy content (low, high) of the items. In the case where both food items had a low energy content, similar results as in Study 1 were observed. If either or both items had high energy content, the choose/reject interaction with sugar disappeared. Only differences in energy content played a role in the reject condition. Overall, our results can be better explained by an "accentuation hypothesis" than by a "compatibility hypothesis". These findings could be used by choice architects to fight the current obesity crisis.