Messaging on healthy foods may not prompt healthier purchases, study finds

Healthy meals cues standing by yourself you should not prompt healthier obtaining decisions, but they could counter promoting for sugary and fatty foods, says a examine co-authored by Cambridge researchers.

People today producing meals-acquiring choices are typically faced with adverts or other descriptions this kind of as “minimal calorie” (healthy) or “delicious” (less wholesome) to influence their decisions, so how productive are health-conscious nudges in moving consumer behavior toward healthier lifestyles?

A research posted in the journal Urge for food finds that balanced cues standing alone have, remarkably, tiny effects in prompting far more healthful shopping for conclusions, although “hedonic” or satisfaction-connected cues reduce wholesome selections by 3%.

When healthy and non-wholesome prompts are introduced at the same time, however, the healthier prompts had a protecting impact in fully neutralizing the non-healthier nudges, maybe by triggering an “alarm bell” to activate control procedures.

The research was primarily based on 1,200 Dutch participants and the sample was selected to be consultant of age, gender, and income for the Netherlands.

The research fills some crucial gaps in knowing how these cues affect foods-shopping for selections. Former studies experienced mostly been based on little samples and slender populations (such as college learners), and were being based mostly on healthy messages standing by itself fairly than together with non-wholesome cues.

“The realistic impacts of our conclusions are two-fold: the outcomes cast question on the usefulness of well being-aim cues to enhance balanced food stuff alternatives, but they advise that wholesome primes could avoid considerably less healthful food items possibilities by countering hedonic cues via the interaction of the competing messages,” explained co-author Lucia Reisch, El-Erian Professor of Behavioral Economics & Plan and Director of the El-Erian Institute of Behavioral Economics & Policy at Cambridge Judge Enterprise College.

The effects have been mainly unaffected by components including gender, hunger, dietary restraint and system mass index. The study’s methodology mimicked an on the web grocery store, and introduced the competing healthier and hedonic cues via advertising and marketing banners for cooking recipes—which contained texts which includes these types of phrases as “healthy” or “very low in calories” (with illustrations or photos of small-caloric foods these as a quinoa salad), and “just delightful” or “heavenly satisfaction” (with pictures of tempting foods substantial in extra fat or sugar these as an apple tart). To take a look at healthier or non-wholesome messages standing on your own, the impression on option was as opposed with advertising and marketing banners unrelated to food items these kinds of as tissues.

Participants manufactured 18 decisions as a result of the mock grocery store, just about every time deciding on 1 product out of six solutions (a few wholesome and three not) as a result of a mouse click on.

Primarily based on past knowledge of health and fitness-objective priming effects, the scientists had hypothesized that wellness purpose cues would outcome in additional balanced food selections.

“Our success do not assistance this speculation,” the research suggests. “Offered the large statistical electrical power of the present-day analyze, our observed null influence forged some doubt on the generalizability of the regular beneficial conclusions of wellbeing objective priming to the population amount.” The investigate did discover that the placement of the promotion banners mattered, with extra wholesome options resulting when the nutritious prime was in the best place somewhat than a decrease posture.

“From a community overall health viewpoint, the truth that we employed pretty similar stimuli to modify habits by way of a health and fitness and a hedonic key but only managed to cut down balanced selections compared to neutral handle is applicable,” concludes the review, which employs the term “prime” to explain cues or nudges.

“If it is, all else equal, less complicated to activate hedonic aims as a result of environmental cues, community overall health strategies will be at a technical downside in contrast to initiatives through meals ad and advertising and marketing strategies. Additional study must replicate our findings to examination no matter if the observed distinctions involving health and fitness and hedonic objectives were being joined to our distinct experimental design or are common.”