AEM Study: ‘Organic’ Label Makes Regular Foods Seem Better

Slapping a simple ‘organic’ label on normal foods makes them more appealing to consumers, says a study by Jenny Wan-chen Lee, a graduate student in the Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management.

In a study with 144 people, participants were given the same food items, one of which was labeled ‘organic,’ and instructed to rate their satisfaction with the items on the basis of 10 qualities such as taste and perceived fat content. Chocolate sandwich cookies, plain yogurt and potato chips were on the menu, as individuals estimated the number of calories each contained and how much they would be willing to pay for the items.

Participants almost always preferred the foods labeled ‘organic,’ perceiving them to be higher in fiber, and lower in fat and calories. Even for the snack foods like cookies and chips, subjects believed the ones with the ‘organic’ label were healthier, even though all the products were the exact same.

So why the discrepancy in assessments of the same items? Cornell investigators believe it to be an example of the ‘halo effect,’ a term used by social psychologists to refer to the bias that occurs when a single positive aspect of an item causes its other properties to become more appealing. If the individuals believed the organic foods were more nutritious, they in turn believed they would taste better. The study was presented this week at the Experimental Biology annual meeting, in Washington, D.C., of the American Society for Nutrition.