Behavioral Interventions Related to Choice Decisions: Convenience and Visibility Interventions Versus Taste Preference

Abstract

Successful behavioral interventions for reducing the consumption of unhealthy food can ease the burden of non-communicable diseases and their economic cost. In prior research, conventional approaches such as the provision of nutritional information were not able to overcome the impact of tasty but unhealthy food. Thus, this study was designed as a field experiment at a casual restaurant to assess the effect of taste using a behavioral approach; namely, a combination of convenience and visibility enhancements of healthier meal choices. The results of this study show that increasing the difficulty of ordering high-calorie food along with decreasing their visibility can reduce calorie intake and compensate for the calorie increase caused by ordering according to taste. However, there are differences in the effectiveness of interventions according to types of participant.