The use of mobile applications to assist with food decision making has increased significantly. Although food scanner applications provide nutritional information to consumers in the marketplace, little is known about their effects on users’ intentions and behavior. This research investigates whether a mobile food scanner app can influence consumers toward healthier food choices. Four studies tested whether information displayed through a food scanner app (as opposed to no information or front-of-packaging label information) influenced purchase intentions for food products (Studies 1-3) or led consumers to make healthier food choices (Study 4). Application-provided information enhanced hypothetical choice and purchase intentions of healthy products in comparison no information, but it did not influence real behavior when participants made choices in an experimental supermarket. Information provided through a food scanner app was systematically outperformed by front-of-packaging label information.

This research investigates a bias related to alcohol type, whereby consumers perceive soft alcohol (e.g., beer and wine) as less intoxicating and risky than hard alcohol (e.g., vodka or whiskey) even when alcohol content is constant. Eight studies show downstream consequences of this bias: consumers report higher purchase intentions and consumption of soft alcohol, higher alcohol consumption before driving and are willing to drive longer distances after drinking soft (vs. hard) alcohol. We demonstrate two mechanisms behind this effect: 1) stigma associated with hard alcohol (e.g., association with heavy drinkers), and 2) estimates of consumption time (hard alcohol can be drunk faster). To address this bias, we propose a FOP label that construes the amount of alcohol in soft alcohol to the equivalent amount in hard alcohol (e.g., vodka shots), thereby evoking higher intoxication and risk perceptions when assessing a soft alcohol.