healthy = expensive

Consumers assume that healthier foods are more expensive.

A recent study randomly assigned 163 US students to one of two conditions about the healthiness of a granola bar. One group was led to believe that the bar had been given a healthiness score of A-, while the other was told it was a C.

Half of each group was also told that the product had been given an overall quality rating of 4.5 out of 5 stars.

Participants were then asked to estimate how expensive the product was compared to others (out of 7).

Researchers found that participants estimated the price of the granola bar 10% higher when its healthiness score was better--and this regardless of its overall quality grade.

Source: Reczek, Hawk, Sample (2017)