Assessing Label Frames and Emotional Primes in the Context of Animal Rearing—Response of an Explorative fNIRS Study

Abstract

Against the background of rising societal interest for sustainable food and nutrition choices, food labels have gained importance in providing important information to consumers. However, little is known about how the differences between quality frames in labels are evaluated and how priming might serve as an anchor for label perception. This study aims to observe the neural reaction of this in the context of differently framed food labels for products of animal origin, claiming the presence or absence of an additional quality aspect and under the impulse of emotional priming. In an explorative setup, we measured the neural prefrontal cortex activity of 26 participants with the neuroimaging technology fNIRS. An idyllic prime and a prime related to a label claiming an additional product quality led to increased neural activity in the OFC and dlPFC. Shedding light on what elements are of importance to identify products that meet consumers’ requirements in terms of quality aspects, this could indicate that the prime stressed the meaning of the label. This strengthens the argument to positively phrase and anchor frames regarding quality attributions as opposed to negative declarations. It further demonstrates the ability of fNIRS to capture processing through labels and primes in the context of consumer behavior.