How to present food images on packaging? The influence of aesthetics design on consumers' perceived healthiness

Product images on packaging are widespread and essential marketing tools in retailing. Consumers increasingly rely on packaging designs to infer healthiness of food. However, it remains unclear whether the presentation style of food images on packaging influences the perceived healthiness. This study delves into the impact of classical aesthetics design in presenting food images on healthiness judgments, as well as its mechanism and boundary, through five experiments. The results indicate that high classical aesthetic presentation of food images enhances consumers' healthiness perception and purchase intention, with perceived naturalness playing a mediating role. Moreover, including organic label on packaging moderates this aesthetics effect. Specifically, when an organic label is present, perceived naturalness fails to mediate the effect of aesthetics on perceived healthiness. These findings enrich the literature about effects of product images and expand aesthetics research in packaging field, while also offer insights for optimizing packaging marketing strategies and promoting consumers' healthy decision-making.