ORIGINAL PAPER Perception of Health Claims Among Nordic Consumers Klaus G. Grunert & Liisa Lähteenmäki & Yasemin Boztug & Emilia Martinsdóttir & Øydis Ueland & Annika Åström & Piritta Lampila Received: 4 December 2008 / Accepted: 11 September 2009 / Published online: 3 October 2009 # Springer Science + Business Media, LLC. 2009 Abstract Health claim perception was investigated by a web-based instrument with a sample of 4,612 respondents in the Nordic countries (Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden). Respondents decided which of a pair of claims sounded better, was easier to understand and was more convincing in their opinion. Claims were constructed from an underlying universe combining different active ingredients (familiar, unfamiliar), type of claim (combination of information about ingredient, physiological function and health benefit), framing (positive, negative), and use of qualifier (with, without “may”). Across pairs, the claims differed in the health benefit addressed (cardiovascular health, dementia, bodyweight). Results showed that respondents could be grouped into two roughly equally sized classes that differed in the type of claim preferred: one class prefers “long” claims that give the full story consisting of active ingredient, physiological function and health benefit, J Consum Policy (2009) 32:269–287 DOI 10.1007/s10603-009-9110-0 K. G. Grunert : L. Lähteenmäki MAPP Centre for Research on Customer Relations in the Food Sector, Aarhus University, Haslegaardsvej 10, 8210 Aarhus V, Denmark P. Lampila VTT, Technical Research Centre of Finland, PL1500, 02044 VTT Espoo, Finland E. Martinsdóttir Matis, Skulagata 4, 101 Reykjavik, Iceland Ø. Ueland NOFIMA Mat, Osloveien 1, 1430 Ås Stavanger, Norway A. Åström SIK, Box 5401, 402 29, Göteborg, Sweden K. G. Grunert (*) MAPP Centre for Research on Customer Relations in the Food Sector, Aarhus School of Business, Aarhus University, Haslegaardsvej 10, 8210 Aarhus V, Denmark e-mail: klg@asb.dk Y. Boztug Georg-August University Göttingen, Department of Marketing and Consumer Behaviour, Platz der Göttinger Sieben 3, 37073 Göttingen, Germany