Nudging Nutrition With Monetary Incentives Environmental Cues

Cornell University

Status: Completed

Conditions: Food Labeling; Obesity; Health Behavior; Diet

Treatments: Behavioral: Tax and subsidy; Behavioral: Tax; Behavioral: Subsidy

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other; NIH

Identifiers

NCT02461108

1110002491

1RC1HD063370-01 (U.S. NIH Grant/Contract)

Details and patient eligibility

About

The investigators hypothesize that monetary incentives and messaging, such as making nutritious foods relatively less expensive than less nutritious foods and framing the price difference in a positive or negative way, will influence purchasing behavior of households.

Full description

In this study, 239 loyalty card shoppers were recruited at Hannaford grocery stores to participate in a study in which a 10% price difference between nutritious and less nutritious foods was introduced. and then framed as a subsidy, tax, or a combination of a tax and subsidy. To determine whether or not the framing of the price difference influenced purchasing behavior, the difference was framed as a subsidy on nutritious foods, a tax on less nutritious foods, and a combination of a tax and subsidy on less nutritious and nutritious foods, respectively. The purpose of this study was to examine the general impact of this price difference on purchases of nutritious and less nutritious foods, and whether or not the framing of the price difference had a differential effect on behavior.

Enrollment: 221 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18 to 70 years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Loyalty card shoppers at Hannaford grocery stores

Exclusion criteria

• No children in household
• Less than 75% of food purchases made at Hannaford grocery stores

Trial design

221 participants in 2 patient groups

Price difference

Experimental group

Description:

Introduce a 10% price difference between foods labeled as nutritious and foods labeled as less nutritious and frame the price difference as either a Subsidy, Tax, or combination of a Tax and Subsidy.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Subsidy

Behavioral: Tax

Behavioral: Tax and subsidy

No price difference

No Intervention group

Description:

No price difference between nutritious and less nutritious foods.