Halo It’s Meat! the Effect of the Vegetarian Label on Calorie Perception and Food Choices

Théo Besson (1) , Hugo Bouxom (1) , Thibault Jaubert (1)

1 LAPPS - Laboratoire Parisien de Psychologie Sociale

In the last few years, vegetarian products have become a widespread dietary option in food industry to the point that large retail chains such as McDonald’s has offered a vegetarian burger to their customers (e.g., the Grand Veggie). In the present research, two studies investigated the influence of a vegetarian label on calorie perception, frequency consumption and food choices. In the first study (N = 211) participants were randomly assigned to an experi-mental design 2 (burger type: Grand Veggie vs Big Mac). In the second study (N = 915), participants were either exposed to a similar burger labeled vegetarian or a meat-based. Both studies show that vegetarian products are perceived as being less caloric than their non-vegetarian equivalents. However, participants do not report more intention to eat more vegetarian products and do not lead to differences in menu composition.

Mots clés: Health halo effect; calorie perception; food choices; vegetarian food

Domaines: Psychologie

Théo Besson, Hugo Bouxom, Thibault Jaubert. Halo It’s Meat! the Effect of the Vegetarian Label on Calorie Perception and Food Choices. Ecology of Food and Nutrition, 2019, pp.1-18. ⟨10.1080/03670244.2019.1652820⟩. ⟨hal-02309338⟩