Framing sustainable food production technologies with videos - data from an experiment with German consumers.

This pre-registered dataset was generated to investigate the effect of framing on consumer acceptance of beneficial soil-microbes in tomato production. For this purpose, an online experiment was conducted with 754 consumers in Germany in 2022. A market research agency recruited participants from their online panel, and quotas for a representative sample of the adult German consumer population were applied. Participants were randomly assigned to one of the following three experimental groups: gain-framing, loss-framing or a control group. Each group received a short video clip with information about beneficial soil-microbes, in which either gain-framing, loss-framing or no framing was applied. The following constructs were surveyed before video exposure: demographics, tomato consumption frequency, attitudes towards conventionally produced tomatoes and subjective knowledge of soil-microbes. The items and constructs collected after video exposure were: purchase intentions, explicit and implicit attitude towards tomatoes produced with beneficial soil-microbes, organic consumption behavior and an evaluation of different food production methods. A single-target category implicit-association test (ST-IAT) was used to measure the implicit attitude, and all other constructs were measured through self-reported survey items. The main concept of interest is the acceptance of beneficial soil-microbes, which can be inferred from consumers' intentions and attitudes after video exposure. The dataset can be used to analyze the effect of video-based communication on consumer acceptance. Moreover, the effect of video-based communication on other outcome variables can be analyzed, such as the evaluation of different production methods and other exploratory purposes. Further, it can be explored whether organic consumption behavior or socio-demographic statistics play a mediating role on the effect of information framing. This might be of relevance for other researchers to determine the potential of video-based communication to influence consumers' acceptance of future innovations in the food sector.

Every step you take: Nudging animal welfare product purchases in a virtual supermarket.

Animal welfare (AW) is a growing concern for consumers in Germany; however, not all consumers regularly purchase products that have been produced according to high AW standards. The goal of the present study is to test the effect of a multilayered nudge to increase the availability and improve the visibility of AW products in a 3D online virtual supermarket (VS). The nudge included a shelf with AW products (referred to as AW shelf) which was made visible through banners and footsteps on the floor of the VS. The sample of this pre-registered experiment consisted of n = 374 German consumers who regularly purchase meat, milk, and eggs. The results demonstrated that the multilayered nudge was highly effective: the percentage of AW products purchased in the nudging condition was almost twice as high as in the control group. Furthermore, we investigated variables that mediate (ease of finding AW products in the VS) and moderate (price sensitivity) the effectiveness of the multilayered nudge, but no evidence for an effect was obtained. We conclude that multilayered nudges may be a promising tool to increase consumers' AW product purchases. More research is needed to replicate this finding with a field study in a real supermarket.

Fifty shades of grain - Increasing whole grain consumption through daily messages.

Despite numerous health benefits, the majority of consumers, in particular young adults, show low levels of whole grain consumption behaviour (WGCB). In order to increase WGCB, this pre-registered experimental study investigates the effect of a two weeks message intervention. Participants (n = 329) received either information about health benefits, recipe suggestions, a combination of both, or about a control topic. We evaluated WGCB at three time points: prior to, immediately after (post), and one month after the intervention (follow-up). Our findings show that participants read the message on most of the days and on average, evaluate the health-only message most positively. Furthermore, we found that health messages, but not recipe suggestions significantly increase WGCB at the follow-up measure. This effect was serially mediated by attitudes and behavioural intentions at the post-intervention measure, with more positive attitudes and higher intentions leading to more WGCB. Although health messages are an effective tool to influence WGCB, the effect is small in magnitude and consumption levels remain rather low. We discuss implications for future research and for the communication of whole grain related health benefits among different stakeholders in the health sector.

Triggering cognitive dissonance with textual information and images: Data from three experiments with meat-eaters.

This article presents data from three experiments in which we triggered and measured cognitive dissonance in meat-eaters. Cognitive dissonance is a well-established concept in the social psychology literature; however, empirical measures are scarce. In all datasets, we used textual information and/or images related to meat consumption as means to trigger cognitive dissonance. Cognitive dissonance data was collected in Study 1 with a Likert scale, whereas Study 2 and 3 used a Semantic Bipolar scale. Each experiment was programmed with Qualtrics and consisted of four conditions. Data was collected online; Study 1 utilized social media to recruit participants while Study 2 and 3 were hosted on Prolific. All datasets contain items on participants' socio-demographic background, liking of different food products, cognitive dissonance, and a measure of meat avoidance. The data can be used to analyze the effect of information provision on cognitive dissonance and meat avoidance. Moreover, the relationship between socio-demographic variables and cognitive dissonance, as well as other exploratory purposes regarding meat avoidance can be explored. Furthermore, researchers can use the data to investigate differences between Likert scales and Semantic Bipolar scales. This data is related to the paper Can images and textual information lead to meat avoidance? The mediating role of cognitive dissonance[1].