How does viewing food products in 2D or 3D affect consumer evaluations?

Abstract

This study examines the influence of changes in visual information (2D vs. 3D) and product characteristics (healthy vs. unhealthy) on consumer purchase intention, expected satiety, and expected volume with regard to food products. The participants were asked to answer a questionnaire for each food sample displayed in 2D or 3D. The results reveal that the 3D food model has significantly higher scores for expected volume and satiety than does the 2D model, along with a significant interaction between visual information and product characteristics. For healthy foods, the expected volume, expected satiety, and purchase intention were significantly higher in the 2D than in the 3D model. For unhealthy foods, scores for the three variables were significantly higher in the 3D than in the 2D food model. This indicates an inverse relationship based on the healthiness of the food product. The study posits that changing the visual information from 2D to 3D strengthened the image of healthy and unhealthy foods as having low and high volumes, respectively, resulting in a more favorable purchase intention. The results of this study advance our understanding of the applicability of different image types when promoting food products, thereby enabling and guiding well-informed decisions of online retailers and other stakeholders in the design of food products for advertisements and other purposes in the food service industry.