Use of care labels: linking need for cognition with consumer confidence and perceived risk

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of apparel care label information presentation formats (i.e. symbols only, text only, and the combination) and the individual trait of need for cognition on consumers' confidence in and risk perceptions about the post‐purchase activity of care of apparel items. Design/methodology/approach – A scenario‐based experiment was conducted using a convenience sample of 275 undergraduate students for data collection. MANCOVA was conducted to test the hypotheses. Findings – The findings of this research suggest not only that the text only format and the combination of text and symbols format are preferred to the symbols only format but also that the text only format was the most preferred among the three formats. Both the text only format and the combination format significantly increased consumers' confidence in and reduced consumers' risk perceptions about their care of apparel items. Practical implications – The symbols only label does reduce apparel manufacturers' costs. However, because consumers may use care label information as a decision criterion for purchasing apparel items, industry practitioners need to also pay attention to the impact of end consumers' perceptions of these labels on their purchase decisions. Originality/value – Examination of three different information presentation formats (symbols only, text only, and the combination of symbols and text) adds to the extant literature focusing on mainly two levels of formats (i.e. visual vs verbal).