The Impact of Regulatory Focus Manipulation and Purchase Strategy on Consumer Visual Attention to Nutrition Labels: An Eye-Tracking Study

Objective Finding and choosing healthy food products is one of the main challenges that consumers face when buying these types of products. In recent years, different types of diseases such as obesity and overweight, and cardiovascular diseases have become prevalent in different societies. The appropriate choice and consumption of healthy food products can have an effective role in preventing these types of diseases. Nutrition labels are among the visual labels that can help consumers in finding and choosing healthy food items and increasing consumers’ health. Previous studies have shown that motivational mechanisms can influence attention to nutrition labels. One of these motivational mechanisms is creating a fit between the regulatory focus and the purchasing strategy of consumers. According to Regulatory Focus Theory, individuals have either a promotion (achieving positive events) or a prevention (avoiding negative events) focus. Accordingly, Regulatory Fit Theory indicates that creating a fit between the regulatory focus and the strategy towards obtaining a specific goal can increase motivation and encourage one to pursue the related goal. This study investigates the effect of a regulatory fit between the regulatory focus and purchasing strategy on consumers' visual attention to nutrition labels. In other words, the study aims to examine the simultaneous effect of regulatory focus and the goal of healthy food purchasing by aligning these two factors with each other. The study is novel because no studies to date have investigated the effect of a regulatory fit between an individual's regulatory focus and purchasing strategy on the level of visual attention to nutrition labels. In this research, this issue is investigated for the first time using a lab experiment with the eye-tracking technique. Methodology This study is quantitative and uses a laboratory experiment. It has a 2 × 2 factorial design with two independent variables, including regulatory focus (2 levels: promotion or prevention) and purchasing strategy (2 levels: trying to buy healthy food products or avoiding buying unhealthy food products). In total, 67 individuals participated in the study. At first, they read and signed their consent forms. After that, they were randomly assigned to one of the four experimental conditions, including two fit and two non-fit conditions. Then, participants’ regulatory focus and purchasing strategies were manipulated using standard techniques in the related literature. After that, participants went through an online shopping experience in which they had to select products based on their assigned purchasing strategies related to the level of product healthiness (promotion versus prevention purchasing strategy). During this online shopping, their eye movements were tracked using a screen-based eye-tracking device. Finally, participants answered a set of demographic questions. Data were collected in the Business Research Laboratory at the Faculty of Management, the University of Tehran, and were analyzed using the Univariate Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) in SPSS software. Visual attention was measured by five measures (time to first fixation, fixation duration, fixation count, visit duration, and visit count). Findings In the regulatory fit conditions, including the two conditions of prevention—avoiding buying unhealthy food products—and promotion—trying to buy healthy food products—visual attention to nutrition labels increased. Regulatory fit is influential in visual attention and increases consumers' focus on nutrition labels. Conclusion By creating a fit between regulatory focus and purchasing strategy, we can increase visual attention to nutrition labels and improve the rate of healthy food purchasing.