Heuristic Thinking and Credibility of Organic Advertising Claims: The Role of Knowledge and Motivations

• Published in: Sustainability Vol. 12; no. 21; p. 8776
• Main Authors: Lanero, Ana, Vázquez, José-Luis, Sahelices-Pinto, César
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Basel MDPI AG 01.11.2020
• Subjects: Advertising; Certification; Consumer protection; Consumers; Credibility; Decision making; Heuristic; Hypotheses; Knowledge; Labeling; Logos; Motivation
• ISSN: 2071-1050; 2071-1050
• DOI: 10.3390/su12218776

Consumers are often overexposed to sustainability symbols and claims on food product packages and find it difficult to accurately judge their meaning when making purchase decisions. Based on the heuristic-systematic model (HSM), this paper aims to identify cognitive mechanisms to reduce the heuristic credibility of organic advertising claims and to increase the motivation for searching for more reliable information when making product judgements. Particularly, we hypothesize that knowledge and defense and accuracy motivations affect organic claim credibility, which in turn is related to organic product judgement. Data collected from an experimental between-subject study with a sample of 412 Spanish undergraduates was analyzed using partial least squares. The results indicated that claim credibility was directly related to the attribution of organic properties to products, and was affected by defense motivation especially when appropriate knowledge was not available. Improving consumers’ knowledge reduced organic claim credibility and triggered a positive effect of accuracy motivation on credibility. The findings stress the importance of improving the regulation of ambitious advertising claims and developing specific educational campaigns to empower consumers and prevent biased purchase decisions of organic products.