The "organic" path to obesity? Organic claims influence calorie judgments and exercise recommendations
Schuldt and Schwarz show that labelling a food as organic, a claim about production that is silent on calories, leads people to infer that organic cookies are lower in calories and can be eaten more often than conventional ones. The inference appears even when the nutrition label shows identical calorie content and is stronger among people high in pro-environmentalism. When judging a person with a weight-loss goal, forgoing exercise is also seen as more acceptable if the person has just chosen an organic food.
Schuldt and Schwarz show that labelling a food as organic, a claim about production that is silent on calories, leads people to infer that organic cookies are lower in calories and can be eaten more often than conventional ones. The inference appears even when the nutrition label shows identical calorie content and is stronger among people high in pro-environmentalism. When judging a person with a weight-loss goal, forgoing exercise is also seen as more acceptable if the person has just chosen an organic food.
Written from the abstract as shown on the Crossref record, read 2026-11-04.
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Schuldt, J. P., & Schwarz, N. (2010). The "organic" path to obesity? Organic claims influence calorie judgments and exercise recommendations. Judgment and Decision Making, 5(3), 144-150.