Scot Burton

Graphic visual health warnings (GHWs) on cigarette packaging are used in more than 120 countries globally. Because there are concerns about the effectiveness of using the same visual warnings over many years due to wearout, a primary issue is how to identify the most effective visual stimuli. Adolescent smokers and nonsmokers provided more than 2000 ratings of different visual warnings. Cluster analysis and follow‐up analyses are used to identify a high‐performing visual stimuli group from the larger group of GHWs. Subsequent analyses also show that compared to other pictorial stimuli, the high‐performing group is perceived as effective in preventing adolescent smoking initiation and adolescent smokers' motivation to quit. These findings addressing the selection and evaluation of high‐performing visual warnings have implications for global health and public policy communities through identification of pictorial warnings that can be most effective in impacting smoking‐related outcomes for adolescents.

In today's retail marketplace, consumers receive little or no consistent brand‐level sustainability information, but this may change in the near future. Developing hypotheses based on the comparative brand processing and information disclosure literatures, we conduct a retail laboratory choice‐based experiment to test predictions related to the effects of brand‐level sustainability information on choices, product evaluations, and retailer perceptions. Compared to the status quo condition in which no sustainability information is provided for the product category at the retail point of purchase, the addition of positive (negative) sustainability information for the brand yields higher (lower) product evaluations and increased (decreased) brand choice. In addition, due to greenwashing concerns, many consumers may be skeptical of product‐level sustainability information, and we address the moderating role of this skepticism on retailer‐related perceptions.

The popularity of electronic cigarettes continues to skyrocket across the United States. Given the multitude of aggressive promotional campaigns launched by e-cigarette manufacturers, including some that have offered unsubstantiated health claims, this rapid growth is not surprising. Despite this popularity, many consumers may be unaware that some in the health care community consider e-cigarette use a serious public health issue because most e-cigarettes deliver highly addictive nicotine through vapor. Consequently, the Food and Drug Administration now requires e-cigarette manufacturers to disclose information about the highly addictive nature of their products. Results across two studies show that addiction warnings and health claims presented in e-cigarette advertising influence consumers’ risk beliefs. Although a warning statement increases consumers’ addiction risk beliefs, the concurrent presence of a health-related claim in the e-cigarette advertisement weakens the effect. Findings also suggest that addiction warnings have the potential to indirectly influence consumers’ intentions for future electronic and traditional cigarette use in the absence of an explicit health claim. Implications for both consumer health and public policy are offered.

To date, most studies of graphic health warnings (GHWs) on cigarette packages have focused on adult samples and/or the unique role of evoked fear in influencing smoking beliefs and behaviors. Using a sample of 349 adolescents, classified as either current smokers or nonsmokers, the authors examine the effects of GHWs on a broader array of emotions (i.e., fear, guilt, and disgust). Results show that perceived graphicness of the visual warning positively affects these emotions, and being a smoker increases the positive effect of perceived graphicness. In addition, evoked fear and guilt interact with smoking status to strengthen the positive influence of these emotions on current smokers’ consideration of smoking. Smoking status also moderates the effects of fear and guilt by strengthening adolescent smokers’ negative feelings about secondhand smoke and about other adolescents’ consideration of smoking. Finally, the authors find a direct effect of perceived graphicness of the GHW on the smoking consideration measures that is not fully mediated by the evoked emotions. Implications for designing health warnings and making public health policy are offered.

Front‐of‐package (FOP) nutrient content claims are often used by food manufacturers to promote the nutrition levels of their products. In this research, two studies examine the influence of the numerical format (either percentages or absolute numbers) presented on FOP‐reduced nutrient content claims and the moderating influence of consumers' numeracy levels (i.e., consumers' ability to interpret numbers). Low numerate consumers are more strongly influenced by the label's numerical format, but results differ across nutrition attributes linked to cardiovascular disease risk. For saturated fat, low numerate consumers had more favorable evaluations of the product that had a label presented in a percent format compared to an absolute unit format. In contrast, the moderating effect of numeracy had little effect on the format of reduced sodium claims. Implications are offered for policymakers, consumer researchers, and food manufacturers.