Visual cue competition in energy label design: How dominant, linear cues can mitigate cognitive bias by overshadowing

Abstract Background Knowing how consumers understand energy labels is important for predicting behaviour and interpretations of environmental impact. Aims The present study evaluates how different visual cues in the design of EU energy labels help consumers understand the energy scale. Method In two preregistered behavioural experiments, internet‐based samples of participants from the UK general population completed rating tasks. Two key types of energy label designs were evaluated. One type of energy label, the class arrow, highlights a colour‐coded letter that represents one of seven levels in the energy scale. The other type of energy label, the full scale display, shows a spatial layout where all seven colour‐coded letters are arranged. Results A scale that contains multiple ‘A’ and ‘A+’ letter symbols implied a skewed scale structure, leading to biased overestimations. This skewness effect was found with the class arrow, indicating that this label type is understood based on its highlighted letter. However, with the full scale display, these skewed letters were overshadowed by the linear spatial layout which implied equidistance within the energy scale. This mitigated cognitive bias as a skewed cue was overshadowed by a linear cue. Colour coding was an additional visual cue in energy labels that had no measurable effect on ratings in the presence of more dominant visual cues (letters and spatial layout). Discussion and Conclusion Results indicate how cues compete for visual attention when energy labels are evaluated. We propose two design conditions that support a linear understanding of graded eco‐label scales: Cue linearity and cue dominance.