Leonie Reutner
Consumer psychologist whose study is the reason colour-in-context theory survives the collapse of its famous predictions.
Who they are
Red had been reported to reduce food intake by acting as a consumption-stopping cue signalling danger. If that were the mechanism, the effect should apply to food in general.
Reutner and colleagues tested whether it does, across both how much people ate and what they chose.
Key papers
Reutner, L., Genschow, O., & Wänke, M. (2015). The adaptive eater: perceived healthiness moderates the effect of the color red on consumption. Food Quality and Preference, 44, 172-178.
Key ideas
Red affected unhealthy food more strongly than healthy food, in amount eaten and in choice.
The impact decreased gradually as the food options became healthier, which is a gradient rather than a switch.
The effect appeared for subtle and for salient colour cues alike. The authors describe consumers as reacting in an adaptive way to red, not a generalised one.
Concepts on this site
Sources
- doi:10.1016/j.foodqual.2015.04.016