Halo It’s Meat! the Effect of the Vegetarian Label on Calorie Perception and Food Choices

ABSTRACT

In the last few years, vegetarian products have become a widespread dietary option in food industry to the point that large retail chains such as McDonald’s has offered a vegetarian burger to their customers (e.g., the Grand Veggie). In the present research, two studies investigated the influence of a vegetarian label on calorie perception, frequency consumption and food choices. In the first study (N = 211) participants were randomly assigned to an experimental design 2 (burger type: Grand Veggie vs Big Mac). In the second study (N = 915), participants were either exposed to a similar burger labeled vegetarian or a meat-based. Both studies show that vegetarian products are perceived as being less caloric than their non-vegetarian equivalents. However, participants do not report more intention to eat more vegetarian products and do not lead to differences in menu composition.

KEYWORDS:

• Health halo effect
• calorie perception
• food choices
• vegetarian food

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Notes

1. an individual who is neither vegetarian nor vegan but tends to reduce his consumption of animal protein.

2. We were unable to use this information in our analyses because people with specific diets represented only 19.9% of the sample.

3. 12 participants did not answer on their frequency of visit to Burger King.