Background: Although previous research has demonstrated that ingredient information plays a significant role in consumers’ healthier food choices, none of the research has investigated how the number of ingredients (ie, single vs multiple) influences consumer perceptions of food healthiness. However, this research argues that consumers have lay belief that the greater the number of (un)healthy ingredients in food, the more (un)healthy the food is perceived and they rely on the lay belief when judging food healthiness. Thus, this paper proposes and examines the multiple ingredients effect that people make inferences about food (un)healthiness based on the diversity of (un)healthy ingredients.
Methods and Results: Four studies test our hypotheses using ANOVAs and regression analyses. Study 1 examines that people indicate a higher perception of food unhealthiness when the number of unhealthy ingredients is presented as multiple rather than single. Study 2 replicates the multiple ingredients effect in the healthy food domain and eliminates an alternative explanation based on the subadditivity effect. Study 3 also finds that the difference in food healthiness perception between people who have high and low health consciousness is driven by the salience of each ingredient. Finally, Study 4 identifies the evaluability of the nutritional value as a boundary condition for our effect in an AI-based self-service context.
Conclusion: The current research demonstrates the multiple ingredients effect that people perceive higher food (un)healthiness when the number of (un)healthy ingredients is greater although nutritional information is identically presented. Moreover, this effect is moderated by the extent to which people are conscious of health-related issues. This finding is because ingredient information is highly accessible and salient for health-conscious people .



中文翻译：

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多种成分的影响：（不）健康的成分越多样化，食物就越（不）健康

背景：虽然以前的研究表明成分信息在消费者选择更健康的食品中发挥着重要作用，但没有一项研究调查成分的数量（即单一与多种）如何影响消费者对食品健康的看法。然而，这项研究认为，消费者认为食品中（不）健康成分的数量越多，食品被认为越（不）健康，他们在判断食品健康时依赖于世俗信念。因此，本文提出并检验了人们基于（不）健康成分的多样性推断食物（不）健康的多重成分效应。
方法和结果：四项研究使用方差分析和回归分析来检验我们的假设。研究 1 研究表明，当不健康成分的数量呈现为多种而不是单一时，人们对食物不健康的看法更高。研究 2 复制了健康食品领域的多种成分效应，并消除了基于亚加性效应的替代解释。研究 3 还发现，健康意识高和低的人对食物健康感知的差异是由每种成分的显着性驱动的。最后，研究 4 将营养价值的可评估性确定为我们在基于人工智能的自助服务环境中效果的边界条件。
结论：目前的研究表明，尽管营养信息相同，但当（不）健康成分的数量更多时，人们会感知到更高的食物（不）健康度。此外，这种影响会因人们对健康相关问题的意识程度而有所缓和。这一发现是因为成分信息对于有健康意识的人来说非常容易获得和突出。