A randomized controlled trial to test the effects of displaying the Nutri-Score in food advertising on consumer perceptions and intentions to purchase and consume.

BACKGROUND: Some research shows that advertising for high-fat, sugar, or salt (HFSS) products is contributing to a shift in consumer preferences toward products of poor nutritional quality, leading to unhealthy nutritional intakes that increase the risk of obesity and chronic diseases. A strategy of displaying simple and understandable nutritional information (like the front-of-pack nutrition label Nutri-Score) in food messages could be an aid to help guide consumers' choice towards healthier products. METHODS: A randomized controlled experiment was conducted on 27,085 participants randomly assigned to two experimental conditions or a control condition. In both experimental conditions (independent variable: advertising messages with vs. without the Nutri-Score), participants were exposed to advertisements for diversified food products with contrasting nutritional quality and belonging to nine different food categories. Participants were then asked questions about their perception, affective evaluation, and intentions to purchase and consume the products. In the control condition, they were not exposed to the advertisements. RESULTS: Overall, interaction effects between the two variables (1) the messages with vs. without the Nutri-Score and (2) the nutritional quality of products, were significant for all dependent variables, with effect sizes between large and medium. Overall, the better the products' nutritional quality, the more positive their perceptions, affective evaluations, and intentions to buy and consume them. When the Nutri-score was displayed in advertising messages (vs. when it was not), perceptions, affective evaluation, and behavioral intentions: (1) became more positive for products of good nutritional quality (Nutri-score A and B), (2) became more negative for products of poor nutritional quality (Nutri-score D and E), (3) changed little or not at all for products of intermediate nutritional quality (Nutri-Score C). CONCLUSIONS: This research is the first in the literature to demonstrate that displaying the Nutri-Score in advertising messages assists consumers in directing their choices towards healthier foods. Regulations mandating the display of the Nutri-Score in food advertising could be an effective public health measure.

Exposure of French Children and Adolescents to Advertising for Foods High in Fat, Sugar or Salt.

Food marketing of products high in fat, sugar and salt (HFSS), including television advertising, is one of the environmental factors considered as a contributor to the obesity epidemic. The main objective of this study was to quantify the exposure of French children and adolescents to television advertisements for HFSS products. TV food advertisements broadcast in 2018 were categorized according to the Nutri-Score of the advertised products. These advertisements, identified according to the days and times of broadcast, were cross-referenced with audience data for 4- to 12-year-olds and 13- to 17-year-olds. More than 50% of food advertisements seen on television by children and adolescents concerned HFSS products, identified as classified as Nutri-Score D and E. In addition, half of advertisements for D and E Nutri-Score products were seen by children and adolescents in the evening during peak viewing hours, when more than 20% of both age groups watched television. On the other hand, during the same viewing hours, the percentage of children and adolescents who watched youth programs, the only programs subject to an advertising ban, was very low (<2%). These results show that the relevance of regulating advertising at times when the television audience of children and adolescents is the highest and not targeted at youth programs, in order to reduce their exposure to advertising for products of low nutritional quality.

Personality predicts obedience in a Milgram paradigm.

This study investigates how obedience in a Milgram-like experiment is predicted by interindividual differences. Participants were 35 males and 31 females aged 26-54 from the general population who were contacted by phone 8 months after their participation in a study transposing Milgram's obedience paradigm to the context of a fake television game show. Interviews were presented as opinion polls with no stated ties to the earlier experiment. Personality was assessed by the Big Five Mini-Markers questionnaire (Saucier, 1994). Political orientation and social activism were also measured. Results confirmed hypotheses that Conscientiousness and Agreeableness would be associated with willingness to administer higher-intensity electric shocks to a victim. Political orientation and social activism were also related to obedience. Our results provide empirical evidence suggesting that individual differences in personality and political variables matter in the explanation of obedience to authority.