Clinical Nutrition Research Centre (CNRC), Singapore Institute for Clinical Sciences, Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR), National University Health System, Singapore; Division of Psychology, School of Social Sciences, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.
Clinical Nutrition Research Centre (CNRC), Singapore Institute for Clinical Sciences, Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR), National University Health System, Singapore; Division of Psychology, School of Social Sciences, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.
Physiol Behav. 2019 Jan 1;198:48-56. doi: 10.1016/j.physbeh.2018.10.010. Epub 2018 Oct 15.
The use of nudging, prompts or primes in the environment aligned with desired goals, as a strategy to promote healthy behaviour has gained increasing attention. Yet, the adoption of healthy behaviours may ironically be frustrated by licensing of competing goals for indulgence, producing compensatory unhealthy behaviours. However, little is known of these unintended compensatory effects of "health" nudging, and the conditions in which engagement of healthy behaviours may continue to activate health goals versus compensatory goals for indulgence. Over two studies, we examined both behavioural phenomena by investigating the influence of impending healthy food consumption on snack intake. We predicted that anticipated engagement of healthy eating will prime healthier eating behaviour (decreased snack intake), unless consumption of an anticipated healthy meal is expected to lead to an energy deficit (a "low calorie" meal), which may instead activate compensatory indulgence (increased snack intake). Study 1 demonstrated that the increase in the saliency of "healthiness" (unrelated to calorie content) from an anticipated meal resulted in lower snack intake (potato crisp consumption). Study 2 revealed that the anticipated consumption of a healthy meal described as low in caloric content promoted compensatory eating behaviour. This maladaptive behaviour was also observed to be associated with the endorsement of weight-regulation-related compensatory health beliefs. Furthermore, the findings also suggest that more restrained eaters (who experience competing goals for health and indulgence) may be especially likely to engage in healthier eating behaviour when anticipating healthy meals that were not portrayed to be low in calories. Taken together, our findings suggest that nudging by increasing the salience of healthy options without implying resulting negative energy balance is an effective strategy in promoting healthy eating behaviour and may be less prone to maladaptive compensatory behaviour, especially for individuals actively regulating their dietary behaviour.
利用环境中的推动、提示或暗示来引导人们实现期望的目标，这种策略已被广泛应用于促进健康行为。然而，人们追求健康行为的过程可能会因放纵的竞争目标而受挫，从而产生补偿性的不健康行为。然而，对于“健康”推动所产生的这些意外的补偿效应，以及在何种条件下，人们可以继续保持健康行为，而不是激活放纵的目标，我们知之甚少。通过两项研究，我们考察了这两种行为现象，研究了即将进行的健康食品消费对零食摄入量的影响。我们预测，预期的健康饮食行为将促进更健康的饮食行为（减少零食摄入量），除非预期的健康餐会导致能量不足（“低热量”餐），这可能会激活补偿性放纵（增加零食摄入量）。研究 1 表明，预期餐食的“健康性”（与卡路里含量无关）的凸显程度增加，会导致零食摄入量减少（薯片消费减少）。研究 2 表明，被描述为低卡路里的健康餐的预期消费会促进补偿性的进食行为。这种适应不良的行为也与体重调节相关的补偿性健康信念的认可有关。此外，研究结果还表明，对于那些同时面临健康和放纵目标竞争的更具约束力的食客来说，当他们预期的健康餐食不会被描述为低卡路里时，他们更有可能采取更健康的饮食行为。总之，我们的研究结果表明，通过提高健康选择的凸显程度而不暗示会导致负能平衡的方式来推动健康饮食行为是一种有效的策略，这种策略不太可能导致适应性补偿行为，尤其是对于那些积极控制饮食行为的个体。
