Sweet or not: Nudging toward healthier food choices for children using information

It is of public health interest to nudge children toward healthier food choices such as beverages with less sugar. We conducted a field experiment in peri-urban Viet Nam to evaluate the effects of information and cognitive dissonance arousal on children’s food choice. More than 1200 primary school c...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Nguyen, Trang, de Brauw, Alan, Van den Berg, Marrit
Format: Artículo preliminar
Language:Inglés
Published: International Food Policy Research Institute 2021
Subjects:
Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/10568/143377
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author Nguyen, Trang
de Brauw, Alan
Van den Berg, Marrit
author_browse Nguyen, Trang
Van den Berg, Marrit
de Brauw, Alan
author_facet Nguyen, Trang
de Brauw, Alan
Van den Berg, Marrit
author_sort Nguyen, Trang
collection Repository of Agricultural Research Outputs (CGSpace)
description It is of public health interest to nudge children toward healthier food choices such as beverages with less sugar. We conducted a field experiment in peri-urban Viet Nam to evaluate the effects of information and cognitive dissonance arousal on children’s food choice. More than 1200 primary school children were randomly assigned into three groups: control, health information, and health information plus hypocrisy inducement – a way to raise cognitive dissonance by illustrating the gap between what people know they should do (socially desired behaviors) and what they actually did (transgressions). We find that health information raised the likelihood of selecting milk with less sugar by around 30 percent, compared with the control group. Hypocrisy inducement does not make an additional contribution to healthier food choice in our sample. The treatment effects decline with the delay between the treatment and behavioral choice. We discuss the practical implications of our findings for short-term intervention field studies.
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spelling CGSpace1433772025-12-02T21:02:41Z Sweet or not: Nudging toward healthier food choices for children using information Nguyen, Trang de Brauw, Alan Van den Berg, Marrit beverages sweeteners child nutrition health healthy diets schoolchildren nutrition sugar confectionery children information diet sugar public health It is of public health interest to nudge children toward healthier food choices such as beverages with less sugar. We conducted a field experiment in peri-urban Viet Nam to evaluate the effects of information and cognitive dissonance arousal on children’s food choice. More than 1200 primary school children were randomly assigned into three groups: control, health information, and health information plus hypocrisy inducement – a way to raise cognitive dissonance by illustrating the gap between what people know they should do (socially desired behaviors) and what they actually did (transgressions). We find that health information raised the likelihood of selecting milk with less sugar by around 30 percent, compared with the control group. Hypocrisy inducement does not make an additional contribution to healthier food choice in our sample. The treatment effects decline with the delay between the treatment and behavioral choice. We discuss the practical implications of our findings for short-term intervention field studies. 2021-09-16 2024-05-22T12:13:43Z 2024-05-22T12:13:43Z Working Paper https://hdl.handle.net/10568/143377 en https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.133156 https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.133433 https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.134401 https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.133777 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ehb.2022.101185 Open Access application/pdf International Food Policy Research Institute Nguyen, Trang; de Brauw, Alan; and Van den berg, Marrit. 2021. Sweet or not: Nudging toward healthier food choices for children using information. IFPRI Discussion Paper 2041. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.134565.
spellingShingle beverages
sweeteners
child nutrition
health
healthy diets
schoolchildren
nutrition
sugar confectionery
children
information
diet
sugar
public health
Nguyen, Trang
de Brauw, Alan
Van den Berg, Marrit
Sweet or not: Nudging toward healthier food choices for children using information
title Sweet or not: Nudging toward healthier food choices for children using information
title_full Sweet or not: Nudging toward healthier food choices for children using information
title_fullStr Sweet or not: Nudging toward healthier food choices for children using information
title_full_unstemmed Sweet or not: Nudging toward healthier food choices for children using information
title_short Sweet or not: Nudging toward healthier food choices for children using information
title_sort sweet or not nudging toward healthier food choices for children using information
topic beverages
sweeteners
child nutrition
health
healthy diets
schoolchildren
nutrition
sugar confectionery
children
information
diet
sugar
public health
url https://hdl.handle.net/10568/143377
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