We meat again: a field study on the moderating role of location-specific consumer preferences in nudging vegetarian options

This field study set out to test whether consumers' history of making decisions in a particular choice context moderated the effectiveness of a nudge intervention to reduce meat consumption. In a Danish hospital canteen that served both staff members and visitors, a combination of nudges (Chef's recommendation sticker + prominent positioning) was implemented to promote vegetarian sandwiches. The sales of these sandwiches increased from 16.45% during the baseline period to 25.16% during the nudge intervention period. Most notably, this increase was caused by the visitors, who had weak location-bound preferences. Hospital staff members (who had strong location-bound preferences) were unaffected by the nudge in their choice. This is an important finding because the two consumer groups did not differ on their person-bound preferences for meat. It seems that behaviour change is best predicted by location-bound preferences, whereas the behaviour itself is best predicted by person-bound preferences. These findings can help organizations in estimating whether a nudge intervention has enough potential for behaviour change, or whether more directive policies are required.

Positive behavioral change during the COVID‐19 crisis: The role of optimism and collective resilience

While the issue of behavioral change is of increasing interest to academics and practitioners, an understanding of its drivers remains limited. Consistent with the possibility that destabilizing events can trigger the implementation of beneficial changes in one's life, this research studies the COVID‐19 pandemic and its influence on the adoption of positive habits. More specifically, it focuses on positive health and lifestyle‐related behavioral changes observed within the confined population, as well as the antecedents of such changes. Two surveys conducted 1 month apart in an urban setting severely affected by the pandemic confirm the role of optimism toward the crisis as an antecedent to four changes: slowdown in pace of life, decluttering of personal space, reflection on consumption habits and adoption of healthy behaviors. Collective resilience, social support and anxiety are identified as determinants of optimism. Results suggest an evolution of certain relations including the increase of collective resilience effect on optimism over time.

Using consumption and reward simulations to increase the appeal of plant-based foods

The production of meat is a main contributor to current dangerous levels of greenhouse gas emissions. However, the shift to more plant-based diets is hampered by consumers finding meat-based foods more attractive than plant-based foods. How can plant-based foods best be described to increase their appeal to consumers? Based on the grounded cognition theory of desire, we suggest that descriptions that trigger simulations, or re-experiences, of eating and enjoying a food will increase the attractiveness of a food, compared to descriptions emphasizing ingredients. In Study 1, we first examined the descriptions of ready meals available in four large UK supermarkets (N = 240). We found that the labels of meat-based foods contained more references to eating simulations than vegetarian foods, and slightly more than plant-based foods, and that this varied between supermarkets. In Studies 2 and 3 (N = 170, N = 166, pre-registered), we manipulated the labels of plant-based and meat-based foods to either include eating simulation words or not. We assessed the degree to which participants reported that the description made them think about eating the food (i.e., induced eating simulations), and how attractive they found the food. In Study 2, where either sensory or eating context words were added, we found no differences with control labels. In Study 3, however, where simulation-based labels included sensory, context, and hedonic words, we found that simulation-based descriptions increased eating simulations and attractiveness. Moreover, frequent meat eaters found plant-based foods less attractive, but this was attenuated when plant-based foods were described with simulation-inducing words. We suggest that language that describes rewarding eating experiences can be used to facilitate the shift toward healthy and sustainable diets.

Advertising models in the act of eating: How the depiction of different eating phases affects consumption desire and behavior

In print advertising, the use of static pictures depicting models eating food is common practice. However, less is known about how the depiction of models in different phases of consumption (holding food, moving food to mouth, taking a bite, chewing on food) affects consumers. Theories have proposed that not only do individuals mimic actions, but they also adopt the goals and the motivational patterns underlying these actions by observing others. Building on this view, we hypothesized that consumers' desire to eat a food product and their actual consumption of a food product would be greater when the model in the picture was close to engaging in consumption and that desire and actual consumption would be reduced when the model was shown in the process of finishing consumption. In two studies, we found that the participants experienced an increased desire to eat the depicted food (Study 1) and ate more of the advertised food (Study 2) when the model was shown to engage in eating food compared with when the model was shown during completion of a consumption episode. In addition, the results of Study 1 suggest that even subtle differences such as holding food compared with putting food into the mouth might affect consumers' desire to eat. Overall, our results suggest that advertisements may affect consumers' motivation to engage in food intake differently depending on which consumption state they show with the depiction of a model close to engagement in food consumption being most likely to trigger a desire for consumption and an actual engagement in food intake.

Social Smartphone Apps Do Not Capture Attention Despite Their Perceived High Reward Value

Smartphones have been shown to distract people from their main tasks (e.g., studying, working), but the psychological mechanisms underlying these distractions are not clear yet. In a preregistered experiment (https://osf.io/g8kbu/), we tested whether the distracting nature of smartphones stems from their high associated (social) reward value. Participants (N = 117) performed a visual search task while they were distracted by (a) high social reward apps (e.g., Facebook app icon + notification sign), (b) low social reward apps (e.g., Facebook app icon), and (c) no social reward apps (e.g., Weather app icon). We expected that high social reward app icons would slow down search, especially when people were deprived of their smartphones. Surprisingly, high social reward (vs. low or no social reward) apps did not impair visual search performance, yet in a survey (N = 158) participants indicated to perceive these icons as more rewarding. Our results demonstrate that even if people perceive social smartphone apps as more rewarding than nonsocial apps, this may not manifest in behavior.

Studying human eating behaviour in the laboratory: Theoretical considerations and practical suggestions

Robinson and colleagues (2018) make important first steps in highlighting the shortcomings of laboratory studies of human eating behaviour, and providing some general suggestions to increase methodological and reporting quality. In this commentary, we present additional important theoretical considerations and practical suggestions. First, we discuss the role of situational cues in eating behaviour and highlight the implications for designing ecologically valid laboratory experiments. Next, we discuss food intake in laboratory settings in the context of the distinction between implicit and explicit measures used widely in social psychology, and provide practical recommendations to keep intake a relatively implicit measure. Finally, we recognise that designing optimal experiments requires significant resources so we present a practical procedure to recruit the smallest informative sample via Bayesian sequential hypothesis testing.