Citizen approval of nudging interventions promoting healthy eating: the role of intrusiveness and trustworthiness.

BACKGROUND: Nudging interventions have lately been widely adopted by policy makers to increase the welfare of society and to help citizens make better choices. Hence, it has become important to understand the conditions under which they are approved. While most research has looked into whether professionals approve of nudging interventions, surprisingly the opinion of the target group has been widely ignored. This study investigated citizens' level of approval of nudging in the realm of healthy eating promotion, as well as its boundary conditions. METHODS: Participants (N = 1441) from the US and seven European countries were probed for their level of approval of nudges. Moreover, we investigated whether these levels of approval were dependent on the level of intrusiveness of the nudge and on the type and trustworthiness of the source (policy makers, experts, industry) implementing the nudge. RESULTS: People revealed moderate to high levels of approval with nudging across all countries. Intrusiveness and nudging approval were negatively associated. Nudges implemented by experts received more approval than those by policy makers. In general, approval increased with the trustworthiness of the source. CONCLUSIONS: These results provide information for European and American policy makers considering using nudging in their policy repertoire.

Consumers' choice-blindness to ingredient information.

Food manufacturers and policy makers have been tailoring food product ingredient information to consumers' self-reported preference for natural products and concerns over food additives. Yet, the influence of this ingredient information on consumers remains inconclusive. The current study aimed at examining the first step in such influence, which is consumers' attention to ingredient information on food product packaging. Employing the choice-blindness paradigm, the current study assessed whether participants would detect a covertly made change to the naturalness of ingredient list throughout a product evaluation procedure. Results revealed that only few consumers detected the change on the ingredient lists. Detection was improved when consumers were instructed to judge the naturalness of the product as compared to evaluating the product in general. These findings challenge consumers' self-reported use of ingredient lists as a source of information throughout product evaluations. While most consumers do not attend to ingredient information, this tendency can be slightly improved by prompting their consideration of naturalness. Future research should investigate the reasons for consumers' inattention to ingredient information and develop more effective strategies for conveying information to consumers.