"Lies Have Short Legs": the Role of Front-of-Pack Nutritional Labels and the Disclosure of Manipulative Intent in Overcoming Potentially Misleading Elements

The global raise of overweight and obesity is increasing the incidence of noncommunicable diseases. The presence of potentially misleading elements (PMEs) on food packaging might exacerbate the situation by causing consumers to unknowingly choose less healthy options. Front-of-pack nutritional labels (FOPLs) typically provide consumers with reliable information and partially mitigate the effect of PMEs —information that is not necessarily false but is designed to suggest the food is healthier than it truly is—in the package. However, PMEs might divert consumer attention from FOPLs and lead them to misinterpret the product healthiness from time to time. Building on persuasion knowledge model, our research shows that a disclosure of the manipulative intent of PMEs’ present in the front-of-pack is necessary, despite the presence of FOPLs, to support consumers in recognizing company’s lying intention. In turn, consumers will spread more negative word-of-mouth (WOM) of the company. Moreover, we report that consumers recognize the company’s lying intention only when the disclosure highlights high-salience manipulation intent. In contrast, even in the presence of a FOPL, individuals may not recognize companies’ lying intentions in case of low-salience manipulation intent.