scholarly journals Attract the best: The attraction effect as an effective strategy to enhance healthy choices

PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (11) ◽  
pp. e0259521
Author(s):  
Gitta van den Enden ◽  
Kelly Geyskens
Keyword(s):  
Choice Experiment ◽  
Food Choices ◽  
Self Control ◽  
Attraction Effect ◽  
Effective Strategy ◽  
Unhealthy Food ◽  
Healthy Choice ◽  
Control Situation ◽  
Food Decisions ◽  
Choice Set

Every day, people make many food decisions without thinking, repeatedly falling for the unhealthy option instead of the healthy option. While making these mindless decisions, people often rely on heuristics. In this paper, we demonstrate that these heuristics can be exploited to nudge consumers towards healthy alternatives. Specifically, we explore how the attraction effect (i.e., adding a decoy to a choice set) can nudge people to choose a healthy snack. The results of our choice experiment indicate that adding a decoy (i.e., a less attractive food alternative) to a self-control situation (i.e., choosing between a healthy and an unhealthy food alternative) can help people maintain self-control and choose the healthy option. This mixed choice set thus nudges people towards the healthy option. Moreover, our results show differential effects of the attraction effect depending on the (un)healthiness of the products in the choice set. Specifically, the attraction effect is prominent when the choice set consists of unhealthy products only (i.e., the unhealthy choice set), but not in the choice set that consists of only healthy products (i.e., healthy choice set). Importantly, our results indicate when the attraction effect can exploit consumers’ heuristics to help them make better, healthier food choices.

scholarly journals Promoting Resilience to Food Commercials Decreases Susceptibility to Unhealthy Food Decision-Making

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Oh-Ryeong Ha ◽  
Haley J. Killian ◽  
Ann M. Davis ◽  
Seung-Lark Lim ◽  
Jared M. Bruce ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Critical Thinking ◽  
Food Choices ◽  
Literacy Intervention ◽  
Food Advertising ◽  
Unhealthy Food ◽  
Food Decisions ◽  
Decision Weights ◽  
Advertising Literacy ◽  
Food Commercials

Children are vulnerable to adverse effects of food advertising. Food commercials are known to increase hedonic, taste-oriented, and unhealthy food decisions. The current study examined how promoting resilience to food commercials impacted susceptibility to unhealthy food decision-making in children. To promote resilience to food commercials, we utilized the food advertising literacy intervention intended to enhance cognitive skepticism and critical thinking, and decrease positive attitudes toward commercials. Thirty-six children aged 8–12 years were randomly assigned to the food advertising literacy intervention or the control condition. Eighteen children received four brief intervention sessions via video over 1 week period. In each session, children watched six food commercials with interspersed embedded intervention narratives. While watching food commercials and narratives, children were encouraged to speak their thoughts out loud spontaneously (“think-aloud”), which provided children's attitudes toward commercials. Eighteen children in the control condition had four control sessions over 1 week, and watched the same food commercials without intervention narratives while thinking aloud. The first and last sessions were held in the laboratory, and the second and third sessions were held at the children's homes. Susceptibility to unhealthy food decision-making was indicated by the decision weights of taste attributes, taste perception, food choices, ad libitum snacking, and cognitive and affective attitudes toward food commercials. As hypothesized, the intervention successfully decreased susceptibility to unhealthy food decision-making evidenced by reduced decision weights of the taste in food decisions, decreased tasty perception of unhealthy foods, and increased cognitive skepticism and critical thinking toward food commercials. In addition, as children's opinions assimilated to intervention narratives, their cognitive skepticism and critical thinking toward commercials increased. The aforementioned results were not shown in the control condition. However, this brief intervention was not enough to change actual food choices or food consumption. Results of this study suggest that promoting resilience to food commercials by enhancing cognitive skepticism and critical thinking effectively reduced children's susceptibility to unhealthy food-decision making.

Calorie Labeling Promotes Dietary Self-Control by Shifting the Temporal Dynamics of Health- and Taste-Attribute Integration in Overweight Individuals

2018 ◽  
Vol 29 (3) ◽  
pp. 447-462 ◽  
Author(s):  
Seung-Lark Lim ◽  
Molly T. Penrod ◽  
Oh-Ryeong Ha ◽  
Jared M. Bruce ◽  
Amanda S. Bruce
Keyword(s):  
Decision Process ◽  
Food Choice ◽  
Temporal Dynamics ◽  
Food Choices ◽  
Choice Task ◽  
Self Control ◽  
Unhealthy Food ◽  
Relative Speed ◽  
Calorie Labeling ◽  
Health Related

Understanding why people make unhealthy food choices and how to promote healthier choices is critical to prevent obesity. Unhealthy food choices may occur when individuals fail to consider health attributes as quickly as taste attributes in their decisions, and this bias may be modifiable by health-related external cues. One hundred seventy-eight participants performed a mouse-tracking food-choice task with and without calorie information. With the addition of calorie information, participants made healthier choices. Without calorie information, the initial integration of health attributes in overweight individuals’ decisions was about 230 ms delayed relative to the taste attributes, but calorie labeling promoted healthier choices by speeding up the integration of health attributes during a food-choice task. Our study suggests that obesogenic choices are related to the relative speed with which taste and health attributes are integrated into the decision process and that this bias is modifiable by external health-related cues.

scholarly journals See the Cake and Have it Too? Investigating the Effect of Watching a Cooking Show on Unhealthy Food Choices

2021 ◽  
pp. 113409
Author(s):  
Monique C. Alblas ◽  
Saar Mollen ◽  
Marieke L. Fransen ◽  
Bas van den Putte
Keyword(s):  
Food Choices ◽  
Unhealthy Food

scholarly journals Resisting temptation of unhealthy food: interaction between temptation-elicited goal activation and self-control

2014 ◽  
Vol 38 (4) ◽  
pp. 485-495 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ashleigh Haynes ◽  
Eva Kemps ◽  
Robyn Moffitt ◽  
Philip Mohr
Keyword(s):  
Self Control ◽  
Unhealthy Food ◽  
Food Interaction ◽  
Goal Activation

scholarly journals Improving Understanding about Social Influences on Food Choices in College Students: A Pilot Study

2016 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 1 ◽  
Author(s):  
Corey H. Basch ◽  
Michele Grodner ◽  
Lindsay Prewitt
Keyword(s):  
College Students ◽  
Pilot Study ◽  
Response Rate ◽  
Social Influences ◽  
Food Choices ◽  
Personal Health ◽  
Purchasing Decisions ◽  
Healthy Choice ◽  
Health Course ◽  
The Impact

<p>The impact of social influences on food choices in college settings is of great importance because students are vulnerable to new forming identities at this time. The purpose of this pilot study is to determine the degree to which social influences impact food choices in a sample of college students. A 22-item survey instrument was created to determine the extent to which students have experienced being influenced by others when making food related purchasing decisions. A total of 257 out of a 323 students invited (80% response rate) in 11 sections of a personal health course responded to the survey. The overwhelming majority of respondents were reportedly comfortable ordering whatever they wanted when in the presence of their friends (n=249; 97%). Students were more likely to feel pressure to make a healthy choice than an unhealthy choice if everyone else was (45.1% vs. 31.5%), but fewer felt this way when asked specifically if their friends were ordering (28.4% vs. 21%). Social influences surrounding food choices are a topic that has gained momentum recently, however more research needs to be conducted to determine the reasons why social influences affect certain college students especially in comparing healthy versus unhealthy food choices.</p>

scholarly journals Impact of Pediatric Mobile Game Play on Healthy Eating Behavior: Randomized Controlled Trial

10.2196/15717 ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (11) ◽  
pp. e15717
Author(s):  
Yi-Chin Kato-Lin ◽  
Uttara Bharath Kumar ◽  
Bhargav Sri Prakash ◽  
Bhairavi Prakash ◽  
Vasini Varadan ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Implicit Learning ◽  
Positive Impact ◽  
Controlled Trial ◽  
Food Choices ◽  
Unhealthy Food ◽  
Healthy Foods ◽  
Game Play ◽  
Mobile Games ◽  
Mobile Game ◽  
Randomized Controlled

Background Video and mobile games have been shown to have a positive impact on behavior change in children. However, the potential impact of game play patterns on outcomes of interest are yet to be understood, especially for games with implicit learning components. Objective This study investigates the immediate impact of fooya!, a pediatric dietary mobile game with implicit learning components, on food choices. It also quantifies children’s heterogeneous game play patterns using game telemetry and determines the effects of these patterns on players’ food choices. Methods We analyzed data from a randomized controlled trial (RCT) involving 104 children, aged 10 to 11 years, randomly assigned to the treatment group (played fooya!, a dietary mobile game developed by one of the authors) or the control group (played Uno, a board game without dietary education). Children played the game for 20 minutes each in two sessions. After playing the game in each session, the children were asked to choose 2 out of 6 food items (3 healthy and 3 unhealthy choices). The number of healthy choices in both sessions was used as the major outcome. We first compared the choice and identification of healthy foods between treatment and control groups using statistical tests. Next, using game telemetry, we determined the variability in game play patterns by quantifying game play measures and modeled the process of game playing at any level across all students as a Markov chain. Finally, correlation tests and regression models were used to establish the relationship between game play measures and actual food choices. Results We saw a significant main effect of the mobile game on number of healthy foods actually chosen (treatment 2.48, control 1.10; P<.001; Cohen d=1.25) and identified (treatment 7.3, control 6.94; P=.048; Cohen d=.25). A large variation was observed in children’s game play patterns. Children played an average of 15 game levels in 2 sessions, with a range of 2 to 23 levels. The greatest variation was noted in the proportion of scoring activities that were highly rewarded, with an average of 0.17, ranging from 0.003 to 0.98. Healthy food choice was negatively associated with the number of unhealthy food facts that children read in the game (Kendall τ=–.32, P=.04), even after controlling for baseline food preference. Conclusions A mobile video game embedded with implicit learning components showed a strong positive impact on children’s food choices immediately following the game. Game telemetry captured children’s different play patterns and was associated with behavioral outcomes. These results have implications for the design and use of mobile games as an intervention to improve health behaviors, such as the display of unhealthy food facts during game play. Longitudinal RCTs are needed to assess long-term impact. Trial Registration ClinicalTrials.gov NCT04082195; https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT04082195, registered retrospectively.

scholarly journals A Dual-Pathway Perspective on Food Choices in Adolescents: The Role of Loss of Control Over Eating

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eva Van Malderen ◽  
Eva Kemps ◽  
Laurence Claes ◽  
Sandra Verbeken ◽  
Lien Goossens
Keyword(s):  
Attentional Bias ◽  
Inhibitory Control ◽  
Food Choice ◽  
Community Sample ◽  
Food Choices ◽  
Self Report ◽  
Unhealthy Food ◽  
Loss Of Control ◽  
Dual Pathway ◽  
Joint Contribution

IntroductionOne in three adolescents frequently consume unhealthy snacks, which is associated with negative developmental outcomes. To date, it remains unclear how intrapersonal factors account for food choices in adolescents. Guided by the dual-pathway model, the current study aimed to: (1) examine the joint contribution of inhibitory control and attentional bias in predicting unhealthy food choices in adolescents, and (2) determine whether this mechanism is more pronounced in adolescents who experience loss of control over eating (LOC).Materials and MethodsA community sample of 80 adolescents (65% female; 10–17 years old, Mage = 13.28, SD = 1.94) was recruited. Based on a self-report questionnaire, 28.7% of this sample reported at least one episode of LOC over the past month. Food choice was assessed using a computerized food choice task. Both inhibitory control and attentional bias were measured with behavioral tasks (go/no-go and dot probe task, respectively). Binary logistic regressions were conducted to address the research questions.ResultsInhibitory control and attentional bias did not significantly interact to predict unhealthy food choices. However, there was a significant three-way interaction between inhibitory control, attentional bias and LOC. For adolescents without LOC, the combination of poor inhibitory control and low attentional bias was significantly associated with unhealthy food choice. Surprisingly, for adolescents with LOC, there was no significant association between unhealthy food choice and inhibitory control or attentional bias.DiscussionDual-pathway processes do not seem to add to the explanation of food choice behavior for adolescents with LOC. For adolescents who do not experience LOC, those with poor inhibitory control combined with low attentional bias might be at particular risk for making unhealthy food choices.

scholarly journals Role of Food Neophobia and Allergen Content in Food Choices for a Polish Cohort of Young Women

Nutrients ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (11) ◽  
pp. 2622 ◽  
Author(s):  
Guzek ◽  
Pęska ◽  
Głąbska
Keyword(s):  
Young Women ◽  
Choice Experiment ◽  
Food Product ◽  
Food Products ◽  
Food Choices ◽  
Food Allergies ◽  
Food Neophobia ◽  
Product Choices ◽  
Allergen Content ◽  
High Level

Young women are vulnerable to a number of factors which influence their food choices, including beliefs about food products, or information about nutritional value, while information, that product is free from specific component generates consumer perceptions of its healthfulness. Among the factors which may influence such perception, there is food neophobia (FN). The aim of this study was to determine the influence of FN and information about allergens on the food product choices in the Polish cohort of young women, in the choice experiment when given a model restaurant menu. The web-based choice experiment, in a group of 600 women, aged 18–30 years, with no food allergies diagnosed, was conducted using a mock Italian-style restaurant menu. For 2 starters, 2 soups, 3 main courses and 3 desserts that were included, the allergen content, neophobic potential and perceived lack of healthiness, for a Polish population, were defined. Each respondent randomly received the version containing only a description of dishes, or a description accompanied by the allergens listed. The FN was assessed using the Food Neophobia Scale (FNS). The type of menu (with or without allergens listed) did not influence the choices of dishes. The highest FN level was observed for the women being inhabitants of villages (median of 32). The respondents characterized by a high level of FN less commonly chose dishes characterized by neophobic potential as a starter (Carpaccio), main course (Risotto ai frutti di mare) and dessert (Zabaglione). At the same time, the highest FN level was observed for respondents who chose dishes with no neophobic potential (median of 34.5). However, for allergen content and perceived lack of healthiness, no association with FN was observed, so it may be stated that for neophobic respondents, only neophobic potential is a factor limiting the choice of dishes. It may be concluded that food neophobia in young women may limit the consumption of dishes with unknown food products, and the influence is observed independently of other features of a dish, such as allergen content or perceived healthiness. The problem may appear especially for inhabitants of villages, who are characterized by the highest level of FN.

When virtue is not an option: Decision making in unhealthy food choices

2019 ◽  
Vol 25 (3) ◽  
pp. 209-216
Author(s):  
Lauren Trabold Apadula ◽  
Chrissy M Martins
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Consumer Preference ◽  
Food Choices ◽  
Selection Strategy ◽  
Unhealthy Food ◽  
Mediating Role ◽  
Relative Preference ◽  
Diet Versus ◽  
Health Objectives

Background: Health conscious consumers often make choices from constrained sets of food options, such as a restaurant menu, in which healthy options may not be present. Aim: The aim of this research was to examine how different decision strategies, such as selection versus rejection, influence the food option chosen when a choice set is restricted to unhealthy options. The mediating role of anticipated guilt was also explored. Methods: An experiment was conducted using a hypothetical choice scenario, in which participants were randomly assigned to a decision making strategy (select versus reject), health objective (diet versus indulge), and relative preference for the options (choice between two preferred options versus one preferred and one non-preferred option) was manipulated. Results: When using a selection strategy, consumers are more likely to choose their most preferred option, regardless of their health objectives, but when using a rejection strategy, health conscious consumers are more likely to avoid their most preferred option and consume a lesser liked alternative. Further, this effect is driven by reduced feelings of guilt. Important boundary conditions include consumer preference for the food options, as health conscious consumers will not reject their favorite option if they do not like the alternative. Conclusions: Decision making strategy influences health conscious consumers’ choices between unhealthy food options.

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