Article That’s Not So Bad, I’ll Eat More! Backfire Effects of Calories-per-Serving Information on Snack Consumption Andrea Heintz Tangari, My (Myla) Bui, Kelly L. Haws, and Peggy J. Liu Abstract This research investigates how provision of calories-per-serving information on serving size labels affects snack consumption quantity. Drawing from expectancy-disconfirmation theory, this research shows that providing calories-per-serving information can ironically create a consumption backfire effect (consumers eat more when presented with calories-per-serving information) for snacks perceived as unhealthy but not for snacks perceived as healthy. The authors find that this effect arises when calorie expectations are higher than the posted calories-per-serving level—a frequent occurrence due to stated serving sizes that are typically smaller than amounts consumed in one sitting. The authors also show that attention to calorie information plays a key role such that the backfire effect occurs among consumers who pay more attention to calorie information. Furthermore, motivational factors including individual differences and perceptions of the risk associated with consuming a snack also play a role in driving consumption differences. The authors offer managerial, policy, and consumer welfare implications, including proposing and testing larger stated serving sizes as an intervention. Keywords calories per serving, consumption, expectancy disconfirmation, nutrition labeling, serving size Online supplement: https://doi.org/10.1177/0022242918815895 Imagine yourself getting ready to enjoy a seemingly indulgent chocolate snack. You glance at the easily noticeable calories- per-serving information on the package and realize that the caloric content per serving is less than you expected. How much chocolate will you eat? Could it be that given the favor- able calorie information on the label, you will consume more of the snack than if you had not seen that information? What about a snack that instead seemed healthy to you? Or if the stated serving size was increased such that the calories per serving no longer seemed low? Our research offers a more complete understanding of how provision of calories- per-serving information on a food package label affects consumption amounts. This research is timely because of increasing public policy and food manufacturer interest in the effects of prominent presentation of nutrition information on packaged foods (e.g., front-of-package labels) and because the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is mandating increases in the typically small stated serving sizes for many packaged foods, which would increase the calorie levels on the nutrition label (FDA 2016). Consistent with these issues of concern to both the FDA and food manufacturers, we focus on how consumers are affected by the calories-per-serving information often presented on the front of packaged foods. Our research centers mainly on the influence of providing different levels of calories-per-serving information, given that such information is cited as the primary information needed when making consumption decisions (FDA 2010; Institute of Medicine 2011) and the nutrition information most often used by consumers (Cowburn and Stockley 2005; Van Kleef et al. 2008). We specifically concentrate on changes in the quantity of food consumed based on labels that present different levels of varying calorie and serving size information. Although we expect that similar findings would extend to all Andrea Heintz Tangari is Associate Professor of Marketing, Department of Marketing and Global Supply Chain Management, Mike Ilitch School of Business, Wayne State University (email: andrea.tangari@wayne.edu) (corresponding author). My (Myla) Bui is Associate Professor of Marketing, Department of Marketing and Business Law, Loyola Marymount University (email: mbui@lmu.edu). Kelly L. Haws is Anne Marie and Thomas B. Walker, Jr. Professor of Marketing, Owen Graduate School of Management, Vanderbilt University (email: kelly.haws@vanderbilt.edu). Peggy J. Liu is Assistant Professor of Business Administration, Marketing and Business Economics Area, Katz Graduate School of Business, University of Pittsburgh (email: peggy.liu@pitt.edu). Journal of Marketing 1-18 ª American Marketing Association 2018 Article reuse guidelines: sagepub.com/journals-permissions DOI: 10.1177/0022242918815895 journals.sagepub.com/home/jmx