Health washing: detecting deception in the marketing of animal products

Over the past years, consumers’ concerns for their own health have increased (Petrescu et al., 2019). As a result, companies bring more products with higher standards regarding this aspect to the market (for instance, the protein hype). Companies, however, also respond to this increased concern by boosting the attractiveness of their products using misleading information. This washing is defined as “disinformation disseminated by an organisation so as to present a public image in which the organisation appears to take responsibility for consumers’ health” (adjusted from Bjørkdahl & Syse, 2021). Washing can be done via information presented on product packages, via advertisements, and via the website and other forms of communication by the company. The information is washed by using misleading quotes, terms, and labels (e.g., “good fats”, “natural”) as well as imagery (e.g., showing athletic persons). This occurs in a variety of industries, such as food, fashion, automotive, and the beauty market. An example of an existing health washing practice is chips stating it has high protein, suggesting that the chips are healthier. Health washing has detrimental consequences as companies are 1) misleading consumers, 2) at the cost of their health, and 3) while unfairly competing with companies that produce with higher health standards. Given these consequences, we need to understand the cues from which consumers can spot whether health messages are deceptive or acceptable.

The internship student will start by getting acquainted with the existing literature on health washing and related areas. The internship task will consist of gathering products which have been proven to misinform concerning health, and then classifying those products into types of health washing and the type of cues used. Identifying the possible cues at which you can detect deception is very helpful to inform consumers and help them spot washing.

Healthwashing; Deception; Marketing. 

The section Psychology of Conflict, Risk and Safety at the University of Twente has a distinctive and unique profile in the areas of risk perception and risk communication, conflict and crisis management and the antecedents of risky, antisocial and criminal behaviour. It currently includes 16 research staff members and 8 PhD students. We work from both a psychology and an engineering perspective and cooperate with other scientific disciplines, based on the “high tech, human touch” profile of the University of Twente.

Usually anytime. This internship is open to 2 students.

Please contact the internship coordinator Miriam Oostinga (m.s.d.oostinga@utwente.nl). 

• Heiss, R., Naderer, B., & Matthes, J. (2021). Healthwashing in high-sugar food advertising: the effect of prior information on healthwashing perceptions in Austria. Health Promotion International, 36, 1029-1038.
• Klepacz N. A., Nash R. A., Egan M. B., Hodgkins C. E., Raats M. M. (2016) When is an image a health claim? A false-recollection method to detect implicit inferences about products’ health benefits. Health Psychology, 35, 898–907. 
• Whalen, R., Harrold, J., Child, S., Halford, J., & Boyland, E. (2018). The Health Halo Trend in UK Television Food Advertising Viewed by Children: The Rise of Implicit and Explicit Health Messaging in the Promotion of Unhealthy Foods. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 15, 560. doi: 10.3390/ijerph15030560.