Visual Density’s Role in Shaping Healthy Food Purchase Intentions - Supplementary Experiment

The present preregistered study aims to examine the robustness and external validity of the effect of visual density in healthy food packaging on consumers’ purchase intentions. Building on prior findings that visually dense packaging can increase purchase intentions for healthy food products, this study seeks to test whether this effect persists under conditions that more closely approximate everyday consumption contexts. Specifically, the study investigates whether higher visual density in healthy food packaging leads to stronger purchase intentions when consumers are not explicitly exposed to health-related information prior to evaluation. Compared with earlier studies, this experiment incorporates packaging designs with richer and more complex visual illustrations to enhance ecological validity and measures perceived food quantity to rule out quantity-based alternative explanations. The study employs a single-factor, two-level, between-subjects experimental design, with visual density of healthy food packaging (high vs. low) as the independent variable. Participants are randomly assigned to view one version of a raisin product package that varies in the number of visual elements displayed. After sufficient exposure to the packaging stimulus, participants report their purchase intentions. Perceived visual density is measured as a manipulation check, and perceived food quantity is assessed to test whether any observed effects can be attributed to inferences about quantity rather than visual density per se. Additional measures, such as perceived attractiveness and familiarity of the packaging, are collected as controls. The primary hypothesis is that participants exposed to high visual density packaging will report higher purchase intentions than those exposed to low visual density packaging. It is expected that this effect will emerge even in the absence of prior health-related priming and will not be explained by differences in perceived product quantity. By demonstrating the persistence of the visual density effect in a more naturalistic evaluation context, the study aims to strengthen the generalizability and practical relevance of visual density as a packaging design cue in healthy food marketing.