Health Claims’ Text Clarity, Perceived Healthiness of Extra-Virgin Olive Oil, and Arousal: An Experiment Using FaceReader

Background - The marketing literature suggests that consumers prefer simple messages; however, text clarity—i.e., the extent to which a message is communicated in plain and unambiguous language—has rarely been investigated in the context of health claims. Scope and approach - Focusing on extra-virgin olive oil (EVOO), this commentary investigates how text clarity affects this product's perceived healthiness, and whether such a perception enhances consumers' intentions to purchase the product and share positive word-of-mouth about it. Furthermore, it investigates whether the degree of arousal—an emotional state of activation—elicited by health claims moderates the effect of perceived healthiness on consumers' intentions. An experiment with 80 participants examined their responses to the four EVOO health claims authorized by the European Union (EU). Participants' arousal was assessed through FaceReader™, while two moderated-mediation analyses assessed the aforementioned effects. Key findings and conclusions - Text clarity increased EVOO's perceived healthiness, which in turn enhanced participants' intentions. However, there was an interaction between EVOO's perceived healthiness and arousal, such that perceived healthiness increased participants' intentions when health claims elicited greater arousal. The study is the first to investigate the moderating role of arousal—using an innovative approach based on physiological measures—in the relationships between health claim clarity, perceived product healthiness, and consumers' intentions toward EVOO.