Research by Assistant Professor Smaraki Mohanty explores how labels about green energy use can lead consumers to view food products as healthier, even when nothing else about the product has changed.
How can a “green” label change the way we think about food?
A new study co-authored by Smaraki Mohanty, assistant professor of marketing at the Martha and Spencer Love School of Business, shows that when food products carry labels stating they were made with renewable energy, consumers are more likely to perceive them as healthier.
The research, titled “The Impact of Green Energy Production on Healthiness Perceptions and Preferences,” was published in the Journal of Consumer Research and co-authored by Iman Paul at Montclair State University and Jeffrey Parker at the University of Illinois Chicago.
Mohanty and her co-authors ran eight studies with more than 1,700 participants, examining whether food products labeled as “made with renewable energy” would be seen as healthier than the same products without such labels.
The studies looked at a range of foods, from potato chips to chicken nuggets, and tested how distance from the energy source and individual health goals influenced decisions.
“This research opens the door to conversations about how and why consumers respond to sustainability messages,” said Mohanty. “We use it in class to show how brand communication, even about something like production energy, can shift consumer judgment in subtle ways.”
Key findings:
- Consumers perceived food labeled as made with green energy to be healthier, even when the product was the same.
- Products said to be made with on-site green energy were rated as healthier than those made with off-site energy.
- Health-conscious consumers were more likely to choose products with green energy labels.
- The perception of healthiness was linked to the belief that the “good for you” nature of green energy transfers to the food during production.
Mohanty joined Elon University in 2021 and teaches digital marketing, marketing analytics and consumer behavior. Her research focuses on how consumers respond to brand messaging across digital platforms, with particular interest in sustainability, emerging technologies and value-driven communication.