Exploring the Dunning-Kruger Effect in Health Communication: How Perceived Food and Media Literacy and Actual Knowledge Drift Apart When Evaluating Misleading Food Advertising

Marketers often advertise products high in sugar, fat or calories as healthy products. With this potentially misleading information, they can influence eating decisions with negative consequences for human health. Consumers need the ability to uncover misleading food advertising. However, individual...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of health communication 2023-11, Vol.28 (11), p.707-727
Main Authors: Scheiber, Rebecca, Karmasin, Matthias, Diehl, Sandra
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Advertising
Communication
Consumers
Food
Health care
Health education
Health information
Healthy food
Literacy
Mass media
Media literacy
Nutrition
Opinion leaders
Public health
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Summary:Marketers often advertise products high in sugar, fat or calories as healthy products. With this potentially misleading information, they can influence eating decisions with negative consequences for human health. Consumers need the ability to uncover misleading food advertising. However, individuals' perceived knowledge and their actual objective abilities often drift apart - a phenomenon which has come to be known as the Dunning-Kruger Effect. Thus, this study set out to uncover the phenomenon's potential existence in health communication, more precisely in the area of food and media literacy. In a quantitative survey representative of the Austrian population (n = 1000) the Dunning-Kruger Effect (DKE) could be detected: Individuals who were most knowledgeable underestimated their food and media literacy, but - on the positive side - they acted as opinion leaders. Individuals who were least knowledgeable about advertising strategies used to market an unhealthy product as healthy and about the actual nutrition score of the advertised product were most likely to overestimate their own food and media literacy. Worryingly, further concerning consequences emerged, especially for least knowledgeable individuals. The study's results provide important implications for public health campaigns.
ISSN:1081-0730
1087-0415
DOI:10.1080/10810730.2023.2258085