Department of Social, Health, and Organizational Psychology, Utrecht University, the Netherlands.
Department of Social, Health, and Organizational Psychology, Utrecht University, the Netherlands.
Appetite. 2024 Jul 1;198:107376. doi: 10.1016/j.appet.2024.107376. Epub 2024 Apr 25.
Food choice behavior plays a large role in achieving sustainability goals. Meat in particular has a negative environmental impact as compared with plant-based food - and is more frequently chosen in restaurant contexts. To increase plant-based meal choices in restaurants, we tested three nudges for menus that are likely to be implemented by restaurant owners: a hedonic label (e.g., artisanal vegetable burger), a chef's recommendation (specifying the vegetarian option as the chef's favorite), and a salience nudge (a box around the vegetarian option). In an online experiment, we showed participants (n = 513) in four conditions (no nudge, hedonic label, chef's recommendation, and salience nudge) five menus with four meal options each, one of which was vegetarian. We asked participants to choose a meal and subsequently to rate these meals on how tasty and indulgent they were (taste and indulgence attributions). We then revealed which nudge was used to the participants and asked how participants received it. Results show that the hedonic label and chef's recommendation nudge (but not the salience nudge) both increase vegetarian meal choices. The hedonic label increased participants' attributions of indulgence of the meal, but not of tastiness. This finding fits with restaurants' gastronomic, pleasure-seeking context and shapes future directions of labeling interventions, namely that indulgence attributions can be increased in vegetarian foods. Furthermore, the nudges were generally well accepted and participants' intention to return to the (virtual) restaurant was high. Finally, customers expected the hedonic label nudge to be more effective in promoting vegetarian food choices than the other two nudges, partially corresponding with our findings of actual effectiveness.
食物选择行为在实现可持续性目标方面起着重要作用。与植物性食物相比，肉类对环境的负面影响更大，而且在餐馆环境中更常被选择。为了增加餐馆中植物性餐食的选择，我们测试了三种可能被餐馆老板实施的菜单提示：享乐标签（例如，手工制作的蔬菜汉堡）、厨师推荐（指定素食选项为厨师的最爱）和突显提示（素食选项周围的方框）。在一项在线实验中，我们向四名参与者（n=513）展示了四种条件（无提示、享乐标签、厨师推荐和突显提示）下的五个菜单，每个菜单有四个餐食选择，其中一个是素食。我们要求参与者选择一顿饭，然后对这些饭菜的美味和放纵程度进行评分（味道和放纵归因）。然后，我们向参与者透露使用了哪种提示，并询问他们的反馈。结果表明，享乐标签和厨师推荐提示（而不是突显提示）都增加了素食餐的选择。享乐标签增加了参与者对餐食放纵的归因，但不会增加美味的归因。这一发现符合餐馆的美食和寻求愉悦的背景，为未来的标签干预指明了方向，即可以增加素食食品的放纵归因。此外，这些提示通常都得到了很好的接受，参与者返回（虚拟）餐厅的意愿很高。最后，顾客期望享乐标签提示比其他两种提示更有效地促进素食选择，这与我们实际有效性的发现部分相符。
