Using Video Gaming to Evaluate Front of Pack Labeling With Children

Background It has been estimated that only two percent of children eat a diet that is consistent with the Food Guide pyramid, consuming diets that are too high in fat, saturated fat and sodium, and too low in fiber. Furthering concerns associated with these statistics is the fact that childhood is a determinant phase in the establishment of eating habits, and that developing healthy eating practices as a child has long-term health benefits.

That said, children are an attractive segment for food marketers. Children are not only represent a primary market with growing access to discretionary income, children also have significant power to influence decisions and are a promising future market. As such, kids represent an attractive target for marketers, and research suggests vulnerability to the messages which target them.

It has been suggested that directing messages to children "increases children's preferences for the foods advertised and increases their requests to parents for those foods." Recognizing this, packaging plays an important role in the marketing mix. The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has estimated that 12% of all youth marketing expenditures are spent on packaging and in-store in store display materials. This is because of packaging's ability to influence purchase within retail spaces, at the point where purchasing decisions are made; something researchers have referred to as the "nag factor."

Clearly, the idea of presenting information directed at children using packaging for the purpose of motivating sales is utilized; however, the idea of presenting regulated information (e.g. nutritional information) in a format that might be readily understood by this vulnerable audience has not been widely explored. A major goal of nutritional labeling on food packages is to help consumers make appropriate choices. However, the current approach to nutritional labeling is targeted at adults, rather than children.

Although children as young as age four are capable of classifying familiar foods (e.g. ice cream vs. broccoli) as healthy or unhealthy, the investigators are the first to examine whether children can use visual cues from Front of Pack (FOP) labels to compare and evaluate food products from the same category (cereal). FOP labels appear on the front of packages and provide truncated information about nutrients that tend to be associated with disease (e.g. fats, trans fats, sugar and sodium).

Two semi-directive overlays, namely, color (2 levels present/absent) and facial icon (present and absent) were crossed, for a total of four FOP treatments. The study investigated color because it represents the traffic light system, which is a standard FOP design in the United Kingdom (UK), and its use is a topic of significant debate globally. Investigators also tested the efficacy of schematic facial expressions representing relatively high, medium, and low values for nutrients (i.e. frowning for high; straight face for moderate and a smile for those low). Overwhelming evidence indicates that face stimuli are given extremely high attentional priority and that the processing of facial expressions of emotion requires very few cognitive resources. These findings suggest that a face stimulus might be a particularly effective stimulus for drawing attention to the FOP nutritional panel and conveying relative qualitative information about the nutritional value of a product. As such, study investigators postulated that FOP utilizing faces would be particularly well-suited for use with children. Faces are known for garnering increased attention in infants and children as young as age 4 can reliably identify facial expressions of emotion. In fact, developmental research often exploits children's ease of comprehending iconic faces to measure children's judgments of stimuli or situations.

Materials and Methods Investigators leverage these fundamental insights in work presented here, such insights can be used in ways that positively enhance attention to and understanding of nutrition information in a vulnerable audience, children aged 6 to 10.

Children were seated at a computer and given a brief overview of the game. The program began with an instruction scene in which a purple monster character (Munchy) said

"Hi my name is Munchy. I like to eat, but only healthy foods. Will you please feed me? In the game, you will see two cereal boxes. One is healthier than the other. To feed me please press the button on the side with the healthy cereal. If you select the healthy one I will eat it and you will get points. If you select the unhealthy one I will refuse to eat and you will not get any points. I am really hungry so please choose the healthy one as fast as you can. Do you have any questions?"

For each trial, both cereals had the same FOP treatment. However, one package contained "healthy levels" of key nutrients (e.g. for colored FOP three or more nutrients at "green levels") while the other contained "unhealthy levels" (three or more nutrients at "red levels"). Nutrients were categorized into high, moderate and low levels based on Traffic Light Label Guidelines released by the Food Standards Agency. The appearance of the brand and the position of the package (right or left side of screen) were randomized; additionally, a second randomization was done with the healthfulness level of the nutrition information such that the positioning (right side of screen or left) was randomized. As a result, for one subject brand X might appear as healthy, while for another it might be presented with unhealthy information. Each participant completed 80 trials, with each of the four FOP designs appearing in 20 trials per participant by the conclusion of the game. The time it took for the participant to make a correct choice was recorded along with a binary response of correct choice (yes or no).

Two blocks of participants were recruited. In the first block, no reference was made to the FOP labeling. For the second block of participants, at the beginning of the experiment, in addition to being shown the basic premise of the game and told that Munchy preferred to eat healthy options, the researcher pointed to one of the FOPs and told children "this information might be helpful when you decide what's healthy."