Healthy Eating Nudges Work Better Through Convenience and Portions Than Through Labeling

Journey ManagementCadario, R.; Chandon, P. · 2020Marketing Science

Topicshealthy eating nudges·choice architecture·meta-analysis·field experiment·behavioral economics·food marketing

Food businesses can encourage healthier eating by changing how choices are presented, without changing prices or removing options. These healthy eating nudges give information through labels or more visible placement; make healthy food more appealing or prompt people to eat healthily; or change convenience or portion size. Imagine your team runs a cafeteria brand and is choosing nudges for its locations. Which kind should lead?

Healthy eating nudges help people choose and eat more healthfully, especially by changing convenience or portion size.

Data chart

Convenience or portion changes have the largest effect on healthier eating

Modeled change in calories per day from healthier food selection or consumption, assuming a typical spread of about 537 calories in adults' daily intake; not measured calorie cuts. Average for all nudges: -124 modeled calories per day.

Nudges did not reliably reduce the total amount people ate.

On average, healthy eating nudges improve food choices, and convenience or portion changes shift them more than appeal, prompts or information do.

Table 5, p. 477: daily calorie equivalents of average shifts in food selection or consumption across field studies, using a 537-calorie spread in adults' daily intake. Exact values are -209 for convenience or portions, -129 for appeal or prompts, -64 for information, and -124 overall; the conversion does not measure total calories eaten.

Action guide

Prioritize convenience and portion changes in your food program.They shift food choices the most. Within them, test smaller plates or portions for less healthy food first. Where neither is feasible, put appeal or prompts to eat healthily ahead of information alone.
Target unhealthy eating with your nudges, not only healthy eating.Reducing unhealthy eating moves food choices more than promoting healthy eating.
Roll out nudges in your eateries and cafeterias ahead of grocery.In grocery stores the effect is smallest and not reliably different from zero.

Evidence

On average, healthy eating nudges improve what people choose or eat compared with no nudge, by the equivalent of roughly 124 fewer calories a day. The calorie figures are modeled equivalents, and nudges did not reliably reduce the total amount people ate.
On average, convenience or portion changes shift choices about three times as much as information nudges. That is roughly 209 versus 64 fewer modeled calories a day. Plate or portion changes, mostly smaller portions of less healthy food, lead the seven individual nudge types.
On average, making healthy food more appealing or prompting people to eat healthily is worth roughly 129 fewer calories a day, versus roughly 64 for information nudges.
Nudges aimed at reducing unhealthy eating shift food choices more than nudges aimed at increasing healthy eating.
People shift their food choices more in eateries and cafeterias than in grocery stores, where the effect is not reliably different from zero.
In United States studies, nudges shift food choices about 47% more than in studies from the eight other countries.

Key takeaway

People make healthier food choices with convenience or portion changes than with labels or more visible placement.

Limitations

Studies through January 2017 cover food people chose or ate in grocery stores, cafeterias and eateries, not weight or health. Effects do not reliably change with how long a nudge runs; effects after nudges end were untested, and rankings compare different studies.

Source

Cadario, R., & Chandon, P. (2020). Which Healthy Eating Nudges Work Best? A Meta-Analysis of Field Experiments. Marketing Science, 39(3), 465–486. https://doi.org/10.1287/mksc.2018.1128.

https://doi.org/10.1287/mksc.2018.1128

Exact values behind the rounded figures: -124 modeled calories a day overall, -209 for behaviorally oriented nudges, -129 for affectively oriented nudges, and -64 for cognitively oriented nudges; the cognitive-to-behavioral contrast is a factor of 3.2.