{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,17]],"date-time":"2026-08-17T14:59:13Z","timestamp":1786978753785,"version":"build-2736575974"},"reference-count":57,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"8","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,17]],"date-time":"2026-08-17T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1786924800000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Behav. Sci.","Behavioral Sciences"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Digital food interfaces increasingly enable brands to foreground decision-relevant information at the point of choice, including attributes that may disadvantage a focal product. This emerging practice raises a counterintuitive question: can voluntarily revealing a negative attribute of Product A build brand trust that shapes responses to Product B? Across three online experiments, we examine the cross-product effects of voluntary negative-attribute disclosure, the parallel roles of cognitive and affective trust, and the boundary conditions of disclosure unexpectedness and product fit. Studies 1 and 2 showed that voluntary negative-attribute disclosure increased target-product trust relative to self-promotion. Study 1 further identified cognitive and affective trust as parallel brand-level pathways to target-product trust and purchase intention. Objective description produced comparable downstream responses, while voluntary negative-attribute disclosure generated stronger cognitive trust, revealing a distinctive pattern of trust formation. Study 2 showed that high unexpectedness weakened both pathways, yet affective trust retained downstream influence as the cognitive pathway attenuated. Study 3 showed that under low product fit, both pathways continued to support purchase intention, while their translation into target-product trust was constrained. Together, the findings extend transparency research from focal-product effects to cross-product consequences and show how voluntarily foregrounding an unfavorable product attribute can transform a product-level disclosure into brand-level trust with implications across a product portfolio.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/bs16081410","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,17]],"date-time":"2026-08-17T13:42:17Z","timestamp":1786974137000},"page":"1410","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["From Product Disclosure to Brand Trust: How Voluntary Negative-Attribute Disclosure Shapes Cross-Product Responses in Digital Food Interfaces"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"16","author":[{"given":"Xing","family":"Meng","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Business, Ningbo University, Ningbo 315211, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Jinxi","family":"Ji","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Pan Tianshou College of Architecture, Art and Design, Ningbo University, Ningbo 315211, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Cong","family":"Sun","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Pan Tianshou College of Architecture, Art and Design, Ningbo University, Ningbo 315211, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,17]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"27","DOI":"10.1177\/002224299005400102","article-title":"Consumer evaluations of brand extensions","volume":"54","author":"Aaker","year":"1990","journal-title":"Journal of Marketing"},{"key":"ref_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"179","DOI":"10.1016\/0749-5978(91)90020-T","article-title":"The theory of planned behavior","volume":"50","author":"Ajzen","year":"1991","journal-title":"Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes"},{"key":"ref_3","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"488","DOI":"10.2307\/1879431","article-title":"The market for \u201clemons\u201d: Quality uncertainty and the market mechanism","volume":"84","author":"Akerlof","year":"1970","journal-title":"The Quarterly Journal of Economics"},{"key":"ref_4","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Alkhunein, S., Alghafari, W., Alzeer, H., Alhumaidan, O., Alsalman, S., Alshathry, N., and Alkhaldy, A. 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