Antecedents and Consequences of Skepticism toward Health Claims: An Empirical Investigation of Singaporean Consumers

Abstract

This paper reports on an adaptation of the Skepticism toward Advertising framework (Obermiller and Spangenberg, 1998, Journal of Consumer Psychology, 7(2), 189–186) in examining Singapore consumers' skepticism toward health claims made by manufacturers. The study found that Singaporean consumers, like their Western counterparts, are skeptical about health claims. Age and consumer's self‐confidence in information acquisition, identification of product alternatives, and getting recognition from others about purchase decisions made, are important antecedents to Singaporeans' skepticism toward health claims. Cynicism is also found to be a distinct concept from skepticism. While motivation to process nutrition information positively influences Singaporeans' skepticism toward health claims, use of health claims is negated by skepticism toward such claims. Managerial implications arising from the findings are discussed and directions for future research suggested.

Keywords:

• Skepticism
• health claims
• cynicism
• motivation