Consumers assume healthy food is costlier.

• Position: YOUR LIFE - Brief article

Consumers believe healthy food must be more expensive than cheap eats and that higher-priced food is healthier--even when there is no supporting evidence, according to a study in the Journal of Consumer Research. The results not only mean that marketers can charge more for products that are touted as healthy, but that consumers may not believe that a product is healthy if it does not cost more.

This belief in the health power of expensive foods may lead people to some other surprising conclusions. For instance, people in one study thought eye health was a more important issue for them when they were told about an expensive--but unfamiliar--food ingredient that would protect their vision. If the same ingredient was relatively cheap, people did not think the issue it treated--eye health--was as important.

"The findings suggest that price of food alone can impact our perceptions of what is healthy and even what hearth issues we should be concerned about. People don't just...