S.1.08: Digital Food Choice Environments - Can the shift to shopping food online be used to promote healthy and sustainable choices?
| Tuesday, May 21, 2024 |
| 4:45 PM - 6:00 PM |
| Room 212 |
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Sponsored By:
The University of Newcastle
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Details
Rationale: Food and eating environments influence what and how much we eat. Unfavourable environmental changes, such as increased availability of unhealthy junk foods and larger portion sizes, have contributed to unhealthy eating patterns, weight gain, and increased health care costs. Nowadays food choices are more frequently made online – when for example shopping groceries online or ordering take away meals via apps. Online grocery and meal delivery are among the fasts growing sectors globally and the Covid-19 pandemic has accelerated this growth further. Over 70% of US consumers shopped groceries online in 2022.
Online food environments differ from physical environments with choices mediated entirely through the User Interface (UI) (e.g., the visible design of websites and apps). It is currently not understood how this transition of food choices into the digital world changes food behaviours and how factors of the online environment influence choice.
While companies take advantage of user data and persuasive design to increase sales, relatively little is known on how to improve nutrition and eating environments to encourage healthy and sustainable choices and better diets.
Objectives:
To bring together researchers investigating how the digital environment influences food choice.
To share insights on research methods for digital nudging research.
To discuss how knowledge from experimental research can be translated to promote healthier and more sustainable choices.
To discuss the need for quality data that can help to regulate UI design and inform policy.
Summary: The transition to digital food choice environments brings risk and opportunities. A better understanding of how we make choices online and which factors influence behaviour can help to inform policies around the design of online shops and create online food ordering/purchase systems that promote healthier and more sustainable behaviour.
Format: The chair will introduce the symposia topic including market data on online shopping and meal delivery (5 minutes). Researchers from four countries (Australia, Switzerland, Slovenia, Northern Ireland) will present their methods used for digital nudging research and their latest experimental data, within three presentations (15 minutes per presentation, 3 minutes question) followed by general discussion (16 minutes).
Interaction: The symposia participants can submit questions and add to discussion points during the presentations via an EasyRetro board. The discussant will organise the board and lead the discussion.
Speaker
Discussant
Biography
Clicks for Health: A Comprehensive Examination of Digital Nudging in Online Grocery Stores
Abstract
Purpose: This literature review explores the potential of digital nudges (DN) to promote healthy and sustainable food choices in online grocery stores. Specifically, we focused on the current state of research on the use of DN to promote healthy and sustainable food choice in online grocery shopping.
Methods: A systematic literature review was conducted in nine databases to find studies that used at least one food DN, focused on online food choice, and evaluated the DN in an empirical setting with humans. We excluded conceptual studies, studies that used DN outside of an online grocery/supermarket context, and non-English publications. We identified 60 studies to be included in the review across these databases covering outlets in human-computer interaction (HCI), nutrition, and psychology. The review synthesized existing research, using a conceptual framework based on Mehrabian and Russell's S-O-R model. In this framework, DN was structured into UI design (Stimulus), the user's mind (Organism), and behavioural outcomes (Response).
Results: The findings indicate that UI Design (Stimulus) identified four main elements of DN stimuli, revealing a prevalence of salience nudges over social or combined nudges. The nudges primarily focused on the positive aspects of healthy choices and nutrition quality, and a growing body of studies (25.8%) focused on positive impacts in terms of sustainability. The studies highlighted the importance of timing, location (product choice, after-choice, checkout, and pre-filled carts), and the design properties of nudges. To understand the processes in the Human Mind (Organism), the review explored various theories employed by studies to explain user perception and processing of DN. While the Purchasing Behaviour Theory was frequently referenced (21.7%), the diversity of theories employed underscores the need for future research to integrate different streams toward a unified theoretical foundation. Further, about (20%) of the studies did not refer to any theory. The behavioural outcomes (Response) analysis indicated effectiveness of DN in driving healthier and more sustainable food choices.
Conclusion: This review synthesizes existing research on DN types and their impact on healthy and sustainable food choices. Understanding these effective UI components is essential to designing DN that effectively promote healthier and more sustainable choices.
Biography
Can default order of foods in an online grocery store nudge healthier food selection?
Abstract
Purpose: This study sought to investigate the potential of repositioning foods in an online grocery store to promote healthier food choices. Specifically, we focused on repositioning product categories and individual products within these categories to investigate its impact on purchasing choices.
Methods: Conducted as an experimental study in Australia, the study involved 175 adult participants. Individuals were randomised to one of two conditions: the intervention condition, where high-fibre foods were presented at the top of the webpage, and the comparator condition, where high-fibre foods were positioned at the bottom. Each participant was given a weekly grocery budget of up to AU$100 and was asked to complete a shopping task in the experimental online grocery store.
Results: The findings indicate that the repositioning of high-fibre foods and product categories had an impact on consumers' food choices. In the intervention condition, there was a significant increase in the total fibre content per 100 kcal per cart (p < .001) and the total fibre content per cart (p = .036) compared to the comparator condition. Notably, there were no statistically significant differences between the two conditions in terms of the total number of fibre-source foods (p = .67), total energy per cart (p = .17), or total grocery price per cart (p = .70), suggesting that affordability remained unchanged. Moreover, nearly half of the participants (48%) expressed an interest in having the option to sort food products based on specific nutrient criteria while shopping online.
Conclusions: This study highlights the effectiveness of repositioning higher-fibre products and product categories on the main page of an online grocery store in increasing the fibre content of consumers' purchases. The findings hold significant implications for consumers by showing them that user interface can affect food choices, for digital platform operators aiming to promote better choices, for researchers in health and food-related fields, and for policy makers looking to leverage digital tools for the improvement of public health.
Biography
Chair
Discussant
