How different goals drive attention: An interview study on how parental feeding goals influence the assessment of child-targeted food packaging cues

When making snack choices for children, parents are exposed to many child-targeted food packaging cues. This study aims to understand how different parental feeding goals (e.g. health versus fun versus taste) drive attention to these cues and how these cues help parents to make different snack choices. Qualitative interviews were conducted with 20 parents with at least one child between the ages of 3 and 12 years old. During the interviews, parents were primed with different feeding goals and asked to rank seven snack packages based on these goals. The interviews revealed three key takeaways regarding how parents consider snack packaging from a goal perspective. Firstly, packaging cues are interpreted (and thus used) differently when different feeding goals are salient. Secondly, cues are ignored when they do not offer valuable information for making goal-based assessments. Thirdly, when combining goals, parents either look for a combination of cues that fit their multiple goals, assess packaging based on a stepwise implementation of goals, or choose one dominant goal and rely on relevant packaging cues to rank snack packaging. This study widens the knowledge on how parental feeding goals can influence the food packaging choices parents make and the way in which they interpret packaging cues. The study can inspire policymakers by providing strategies to stimulate marketers to make the food environment healthier by steering consumers towards healthy food options and making these options more salient within environments where snacks are bought (e.g. supermarkets).