Small changes in choice architecture in self-service cafeterias

Peer-reviewed | Manuscript received: February 26, 2018 | Revision accepted: June 05, 2018

Do they nudge consumers towards healthier food choices?

Introduction

Interventional approaches to influencing dietary behavior range from soft instruments used to support good decision-making, such as providing information and labeling, to hard instruments used to steer decision-making, such as economic measures or restricting the available choices. Both measures involving the provision of information and economic measures mainly target conscious decisions and can therefore only have a limited effect on dietary behavior, which is strongly determined by habit and is therefore difficult to change [1]. The newer approach of “softly” guiding decision-making (known as nudging or choice architecture) helps steer dietary behavior in the desired direction, primarily by addressing automatism [1–5].

In the mass catering setting, nudging aims to help diners make healthier meal choices without forcing anything on them and without restricting the selection of meals on offer. There are a number of nudges that would be suitable for achieving this aim, including making the area surrounding the healthier meals look more attractive, offering an additional benefit when healthy meals are selected, highlighting the healthy choices and giving them priority in displays, presenting them in a more attractive way, making them more available, visible, and accessible, and supporting healthy choices in an unintrusive way through stimuli with targeted cues and recommendations [6]. Such tweaks to the psychological, social, and physical environment can usually be implemented in the food dispensary area, where there is a desire for diners to make healthier or more sustainable food choices, with little effort and using simple measures.

Abstract

The aim of nudging is to casually influence people to choose more beneficial behaviors of their own free will. In the context of mass catering, “nudging” by improving the availability, visibility, and accessibility of healthy meals could help shift people towards healthier food choices. A study was conducted in a university cafeteria and in a school cafeteria to investigate whether simple nudges really do encourage healthier food and drink choices among diners. Using a pre-test/post-test design, this study investigated, among other things, whether nudging increased the proportion of vegan or vegetarian mains, of fruit as a dessert, of wholegrain snacks, and of water as a drink in the short-, medium-, and long-term. Simple nudges in the university cafeteria led to marked changes in behavior in the desired direction among both students and staff in all three post-test phases. The school cafeteria results were less consistent. Overall, the study showed that nudging is a promising approach and a useful addition to traditional interventions, and it should therefore be pursued further.

Keywords: nudging, choice architecture, school and university cafeteria, lunchroom, healthy choice, dietary behaviors

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