The impact of health claim framing, self-perceived health status and third-party endorsement source on the behavioral intentions of consumers toward multiple functional food product categories
(A2023-114314)

AUTHORS

Hedia EL OURABI, Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières; Marc-Alexandre Tomiuk, HEC-Montreal

ABSTRACT

A number of studies have investigated the effect of health claim framing on consumer responses to functional foods. However, little attention has been placed on the roles of third-party endorsement source and self-perceived health status in this process. In this study, we incorporated these variables in an experiment and investigated their possible interactions in the formation of behavioral intentions toward a wide array of functional foods. Self-perceived health status was found to significantly moderate the interaction between health claim framing and third-party endorsement source. In particular, subjects with low health status reported higher behavioral intentions toward functional food products labeled with a disease risk reduction health claim (negative framing) only when the claim was endorsed by a governmental source. Findings are of interest to functional food manufacturers and policy makers.