Healthier food choices using nudge strategy: an online fast food experiment

Although technological advances increase welfare, decreasing in physical activity leads to the prevalence of noncommunicablediseases such as obesity. This study provided an experiment to investigate how nudges influencehealthier food choices and consumer behavior in response to nudges. The data was collected through an onlinequestionnaire in March ۲۰۲۳. Participants were asked to choose their food among burgers with different fatlevels from three menus with different conditions (control, textual nudge, and visual nudge). The multinomiallinear regression model was used to analyze the data. The results showed that compared to the control condition,by using the textual nudge there is a greater chance for Burger۳ (OR=۱.۵۷۶, P=۰.۰۰۱) than Burger۱. By usingthe visual nudge, there is a greater chance for Burger۳ (OR=۲.۴۴۹, P=۰.۰۰۱) or Burger۲ (OR=۲.۲۴۱ withP=۰.۰۰۱) than Burger۱. Although both nudges were effective in encouraging participants to make healthier foodchoices, the visual nudge was found to be more effective. It is suggested to standardize health symbols and thenutritional value of food, instilling trust in the symbols, and raising awareness of the harms of food and the roleof nutrition in the health of society, should be given special attention in health policy

Keywords:

Healthy food , Behavioral economics , Nudge , Multinomial linear regression