The impact of health claims and food deprivation levels on health risk perceptions of fast-food restaurants

摘要

Objective and procedure: We examined the effect of health claims and food deprivation levels on the health risk perceptions of fast-food restaurants. Consistent with previous research, we used a within subjects experimental design to manipulate the health claims of fast-food restaurants using real brands: Subway, expressing strong health claims vs. McDonald's, expressing weak health claims. Participants who did not have access to nutrition information were asked to estimate the health risk associated with food items that were slightly more caloric for Subway than McDonald's (640 kcal vs. 600 kcal). We collected data through a web survey with a sample consisting of 414 American adults. Based on the USDA Food Insufficiency Indicator, participants were classified into two categorical food deprivation levels: food sufficiency and food insufficiency.